Over the Rainbow
by neoolong
Summary: Xander is pulled into the future post-Judgment Day. Fighting the future in the past, he’ll try to prepare the world as best he can. And hope that maybe he can stop it from happening at all.
1. Prologue: Up Inside the Cyclone

**Title: Over the Rainbow**

**Author: neoolong**

**Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Terminator franchise belong to their respective owners. Standard lack of ownership applies.**

**Rating: T**

**Summary: Not every portal leads to another dimension. Sometimes they're gateways through time. To a future that needs to be stopped, whatever the cost. Xander Harris finds himself caught in another war, one he knows the end to. And like a few others in the Resistance is given the chance to stop it, before it ever starts.**

**Quick Summary: Xander is pulled into the future post-Judgment Day. Fighting the future in the past, he'll try to prepare the world as best he can. And hope that maybe he can stop it from happening at all.**

**xxx**

**Prologue: Up Inside the Cyclone**

May 13, 1998

Supporting the injured Watcher, Xander half-walked and half-dragged Giles out of the mansion. He had caught a few glimpses of Buffy fighting Angelus, and to his untrained eye, the battle seemed fairly evenly matched. Buffy wasn't pulling any punches, and there sure wasn't any part of Angel left to go easy on the Slayer.

Giles coughed as he squinted in the bright sunlight, feeling the pain of his injuries as well as the guilt of revealing what he knew about how to free Acathla. It had been a trick, an illusion, but he had still talked, despite his Watcher training. An illusion he couldn't see through, and he may have doomed the world because of it.

"You okay?" Xander said, glancing back in the direction of the mansion. Buffy still had to be fighting the vampire, and he was supposed to be the cavalry. Not MEDEVAC, as they say. He was seriously reconsidering the intelligence of having Buffy face Angelus alone.

"I'll…I'll be alright," Giles said, grimly. Though he wasn't too sure about that. The last few months had been hard, and they had all had to put up with so much, Buffy most of all. Still, the world came first. It had too.

Xander set the Watcher down on the side of the driveway leading away from the mansion. It was daylight, morning having already broken by the time he had rescued Giles, so there was little chance that the Watcher would be set upon by vampires, or even demons for that matter.

Looking the older man in the eye, he knew that Giles knew what he was going to do. What he had to do. He looked down at the stake in his hand, the weapon feeling oddly inadequate. It would have to do though.

The boy raced back to the mansion, going around the corner, and only stopping as he reached the garage. The door had been blown out by Spike's quick exit, the blonde vampire not caring to do anything to actually save the world beyond getting Drusilla out of there. If nothing else, the vampire had held true to his part of the bargain.

The sounds of battle filtered out to him as Xander walked through and into the interior of the house. He moved through abandoned rooms and hallways, edging to the atrium that the sounds were emanating from. He moved quickly, but as silently as he could, wishing that he could remember more from when he had been possessed by the soldier at Halloween. He really should have kept up more practice, but it was too late to think about that now.

"Oh crap," Xander said, eyes wide as he saw Angelus pull the sword from the stone chest of the demonic statute. Buffy and Angelus had gone back at it, but he could see that the stone mouth of Acathla had opened, a portal of dark yellow and black energy appearing before it's gaping maw. It grew larger and larger as the Slayer and her enemy crossed swords, crackling energy sparking as the portal grew larger and larger.

He knew that there was little time, and that the portal would grow until it consumed the world and sent it to hell. Gulping, Xander knew that he had to do something to tip the battle in Buffy's favor. And, he knew that it would be something appropriately dumb.

Rushing out, he jumped on Angelus' back as Buffy slashed the vampire across the hand. Xander tried to get the stake into place, but the vampire was struggling too much.

"Xander," Buffy shouted, trying to find a place to strike. But, the two were struggling too much to get a clear shot in.

Angelus tried to push the boy on his back away with a free hand, smearing his blood on Xander's chest, staining his blue sweater, but the grip was too tight and he didn't have enough leverage to utilize his full strength. Before he could flip Xander over his shoulder, Angelus gasped, a sharp pain in his core. His eyes flashing gold, Angelus felt something enter his undead body, recognizing that the soul of Angel returning. Struggling against it, the vampire screamed as he arched his back, tossing the boy back and off of him.

Buffy could only look on in shock as she saw the vampire's eyes flash, knowing that Willow must have tried again and somehow succeeded in restoring Angel's soul. Looking up and past him though, she managed to catch sight of Xander as he flew through the air, time seeming to slow as he entered the portal and was engulfed by it, disappearing in sight.

The last thing that Xander saw was Angel collapse to his knees as Buffy rushed forward. Then he saw nothing. And felt only pain.

xxx

January 3, 2021

The air was still, and the night calm amidst the rubble that used to be the 110/10 interchange. Stone and concrete and rusted rebar lay twisted and burnt all around. Mounds of accumulated debris from the first strike and tunnel collapses made the area a maze of corridors and ridges of wreckage. Nuclear fire had long since blasted the area, washing the land clean of so much of the human life that dotted it. 3 billion lives had been extinguished on April 21, 2011. Hundreds of millions more dying in the genocide that came after as the machines started their campaign to rid the land of the human infestation. Death camps had worked for years, many still in operation, to wipe out all of mankind.

The surface of Los Angeles had long since been abandoned by most of humanity. Only the soldiers dared to challenge the metal and venture up to the surface, the toughest were the sapper teams who used the rubble and ruins to hide themselves from the tracked and aerial HK's that hunted them like rats. Infiltrators, from the T-600's to the T-888's were strewn across the wasteland, rooting out the humans in their nests, where the larger machines could not go.

A wind blew, coming up out of nowhere, twisting into a dust devil. Light debris and cement dust skittered around, plinking off of planks of concrete and twisted metal. A whine sounded, no source detectable as the intensity of the small whirlwind picked up.

Approximately five yards away, a T-888 heard the sound, head turning as its optical sensors picked up flashes of light where there should not be any. Its command subroutines ran through its processor chip in microseconds, overriding its patrol protocol, its body moving in order to better investigate the source of the sound.

Time and battle damage had since uncovered the truth about the machine, patches of skin destroyed to reveal the hyperalloy endoskeleton beneath. It had been assigned to a roving patrol through that sector of southern Los Angeles by the Skynet Central Core, its living tissue cover having been damaged beyond cost-effective repair. This was all it was good for now.

It did not care though, as it was simply a machine. An incredibly complex machine, but a machine nonetheless. With no feelings, it had no sense of anger or resentment, or patience or impatience. It simply stood upon the brown and black hood of hulk of a car, watching as more flashes of purple light and crackles of blue lightning appeared before him. It turned its M95A1 phased plasma rifle towards the center of the light, not caring how long it would take before something happened. Stoic as the dead, it waited for stimulus to cause it to react.

A sphere of white light appeared, growing to about four feet in radius, the energy moving through solid stone and metal as it cut a space between spaces, swapping a section of space-time for another, one from more than a decade ago. It disappeared after a few moments, the edges of material that had touched the time bubble glowing red hot from the energy transfer.

Coughing, a naked figure rolled onto his back in a shallow pit made by the energy bubble, gasping for air. He opened his eyes, feeling them burn as he tried to focus on the now night sky. It hadn't been night before. All he remembered was the pain, his mind flashing to Buffy screaming. Or had she? He couldn't remember exactly everything that had gone on. Acathla. And the portal. He remembered that, but it had been day. And now it wasn't. It made no sense.

He struggled to get to get to his knees, not noticing the figure standing over him until he had been pulled to his feet. He tried to resist, looking up and noticing the red glowing eye and gleaming metal that made up parts of what looked like a grotesque mockery of a human face.

Xander's mouth opened in shock, his nakedness forgotten as he saw the monster that had grabbed a hold of him. His mind flashed to the closest memory he had that could frame the beast in perspective; it was Ted coming back for revenge.

The T-888, only looked down without comment, a scan on the human working its way through, the data being processed, and revealing that he was no threat. However, its memory banks also indicated that the human's method of arrival was not usual. Humanity had not previously demonstrated such a capacity according to Skynet records. It bore further investigation.

"What are you?" Xander managed to groan out, unconsciously and consciously trying to scramble away from the towering hulk. It was no use, and the thing's hold on his bare shoulder was becoming painful as it tightened its grip to keep him from escaping.

The terminator said nothing, reaching up its right hand, still holding its large bullpup rifle. Still analyzing, the machine brought its arm forward, pistons driving its still human-looking fist into the young boy's face, a minimum of force utilized so as to ensure that he would still be alive when he was brought in for processing. The human bore further investigation, but not by him. The machine triggered its communications device, linking its way through the comm-system of a nearby aerial T400 HK, and sending out a request signal to reroute the nearest prisoner transport to a flat section of road 0.74 klicks from its current position.

Xander could only try to steel himself as he saw the fist come his way, the giant wielding a ridiculously oversized gun as if it was made of plastic. It was the last thing he saw, with pain being the last thing that he felt.

xxx

August 9, 1998

The flash of light died away as the energy needed to punch through time died away. The energy bubble that protected the living bodies within through its travel through time faded to reveal the time travelers that had come through.

There was no one to see the sight, one that had been seen by so few people before, either in the past or the future. So few people that saw those that sought to fight the future, and to save humanity from a demon of its own creation.

A man started to pick himself up as smoke rose from the scorched asphalt, eyes scanning the alley that he had landed in, noting every dark corner and crevice that danger may be lurking in. Time had honed him into a survivor. His piercing eyes missing little, and his every muscle poised to burst forth in nervous energy at the slightest hint of danger.

To the world, little time had passed. 88 days since this body had been in that timeline. But to him, it had been longer. It had been closer to seven years. And to a body, time had had its influence. The man, now twenty-four, had become a man of the future.

He was a little thin, though wiry and strong, a mixture of hard labor and little food molding his form as best it could. Old burns and bullet wounds dotted his body, with the remains of hastily stitched up jagged lines marring his chest in rows of white scar tissue. Laser-scanned onto his left forearm was a digital barcode, a twelve-digit tag number below it. Evidence of his time in the local work camp. The death camp, where he had had to load bodies for disposal. Until the day…

Snaking around his right arm from just above his elbow to his mid-forearm was an intricate dragon tattoo. Similar to one that had been inked on one of his closest friends from his old platoon. A gift, and lesson, from becoming too despondent and drinking too much engine hooch.

He heard a sound, and glancing over to his right, the man caught sight of a thickly built torso rise up, black plates of thick chitin rippling as the demon stood straight and glanced about the derelict alley.

The demon, assuring himself that there was no danger or prying eyes, turned to the man that was just now rising to his feet, their nakedness not bothering either of them. For given what they had been through, both in the world and with each other, a lack of clothes was the least of their concerns. The monster spoke, voice soft though gravelly in tone, "are you alright, Xander?"

Xander looked at the demon with tired eyes, red and puffy from lack of sleep and too many night patrols compounded. Battle stress was often ignored by them, as it was by most of the Resistance soldiers. There was no time for downtime. No leave. Not for them. The little they could get of rest in the tunnels was never enough. They'd learned to make do with never enough. "I'll be fine, Burke. We need to get some clothes."

Turning his head, the demon Burke, heard a sound of an approaching couple. Presumably human. "I'll be back. Wait here."

Xander simply nodded as the heavily-muscled demon melted into the shadows, his dark coloring allowing him to almost disappear. He had no idea what kind of demon Burke was, even the demon was tight-lipped about that despite the years they had fought together. Still, he trusted the demon with his life. More than he ever thought he would be capable of. But, time and the future had a way of changing what a man thought himself capable of or able to do.

It wasn't long before a couple of groans were heard; a minute or two later before the demon reappeared, holding some clothes that would them both, roughly speaking. The demon had grabbed himself a coat and pants that would break up his inhuman shape, but he was still bulkier than most, and would have to stay hidden so as not to be noticed for what he was.

"Did you kill them?" Xander asked as he took the clothes that were offered him. They looked normal, as far as he could tell. Hopefully the machine had worked as it was supposed to. Evidently, the original portal that had brought him to the future had disrupted this part of space-time, making it harder for the bubble techs to get a clear lock on anything closer. Or so Cullie's brother had said.

Burke shook his head. "I knew that you wouldn't like it."

"Yeah," Xander said grimly, all too well knowing that the plan to integrate demons into the Resistance had not been without its problems. Growing pains, though ones that had cost lives. That and the ramifications of such things were unknowable. Then again, the world did end in 13 years. "Good."

He dressed himself as quickly as he could, thinking that it was odd not to be wearing the cobbled together armor and equipment that they normally were outfitted with. He felt a little naked without his plasma rifle, at this point even a handgun would be better than nothing.

Breathing in through his nose deeply, Xander steeled himself. He opened his mouth and stuck his right index and middle finger as deeply into it as he could, pushing down as hard as he dared. Going with the gag reflex, he vomited onto the ground. Bile and the remnants of his last meal purged itself from his stomach. A plastic wrapped object fell with it and splattered onto the asphalt.

Reaching down, he picked it up, wiping it off carefully on a leg of his new pants. Xander unwrapped the object carefully, feeling the still new spike of pain in his chest. He unfolded what lay beneath carefully, his good luck charm. Though it had been through a lot, a few tears and other damage, it meant the world to him.

Nothing dead could come through. No clothes. No weapons. But, there were ways around it. For small items. The dead still had its ways of being there despite themselves.

Burke moved closer, knowing what it was that his human commander was looking at. He had been the one to take it after all. A moment of happiness, when those came all too seldom. And all the more precious because of it.

Xander looked at the picture, smiling softly too himself, his eyes threatening to tear up. He knew that it wasn't the time for it, but he couldn't help it. He could feel Burke's eyes on him. He didn't bother to look up. "You know the funny thing?"

The demon didn't bother to answer, knowing that Xander was too engrossed in the subject of the photograph.

"She's alive now," Xander said. It was obvious. Temporal Metaphysics 1. Not even a graduate level class. Go to the past, and anyone that died prior to the point of departure, but after the point of arrival, would be alive again. Of course, they wouldn't know who you were. It was like a special kind of hell. A special kind of torment. "Of course, she'd be like seven now."

"Six," Burke gently corrected him. He had been there when they had first met. Xander had been a mess; subject of Zuth-lu knew what at the hands of the Grays and the Machine for two months. His squad had gone off the reservation to get him back from them. But, she had been the one to save him. She had pieced him back together, body and soul.

"We can save them," Xander said, folding the picture and slipping it into his pants' pocket. He looked up at the demon. "Remember what Derek said? We can save everyone. Fix all the mistakes."

Burke nodded, it was why they were here. Why they had volunteered for the mission. John Connor had sent them back for a reason. Sent them all back for a reason.

Kyle. Derek. Timms. Sayles. Sumner. Boykins. Even the two scrubbed endos.

"It begins now," Xander said, straightening himself up. He stepped closer to the foot of the alleyway, making sure that it was clear. "Let's go."

They had a mission to complete, and a world to save.

xxx

**Author's Note: Thus the pilot. I'm still wavering on whether to go forward on this, considering how intensive the prep work is going to be. Not only continuity, but also having to deal with multiple timelines from multiple movies and the television show. Even though I don't want to follow the canon plots as much as I did in my last story.**


	2. Chapter One: Down the Rabbit Hole

**Chapter One: Down the Rabbit Hole**

May 14, 1998

The library was still and nearly empty. No one was speaking, and though it was a victory and a time for celebration, no one was in a mood for it. It hadn't been a victory without loss. Even Cordelia was speechless, unable to fully appreciate what had happened. They had lost classmates before, from vampires or demons or the odd werewolf, but this was something different. It was more real, given how close they had been to Xander.

Angel couldn't help but feel guilty. While it had been Angelus that had pulled the sword from the statue of Acathla, he had his own part to play in the events that had led up to Xander winding up in the portal. Dead, if he was lucky. Or in some hell dimension experiencing torture beyond imagination.

"He's gone," Willow said numbly, her eyes red. She had just been released from the hospital, and much of her time had been spent clearing up what had happened in the library when Kendra had been attacked and killed. Buffy had been cleared, but it seemed a marginal victory at best.

Oz put a comforting hand on his girlfriend's hand, not speaking as was his manner. He hadn't been that close to the guy one year below him in school, but he knew that Xander had been one of Willow's closest friends growing up. It couldn't have been easy for her, nor for the rest of the group for that matter.

"We don't know that," Buffy said, nearly snapping at her redheaded friend. It wasn't deserved, but she couldn't help it. She looked up at Giles as he stood over the table that they had all gathered around. He didn't look too well either. He had explained what had happened, and she knew that he was blaming himself for not holding Xander back, though he had hardly been in the position to do so. "It was a portal right? It had to go somewhere right? We can figure out where, and get him back."

The Watcher shook his head slowly. "I'm afraid it's not that simple. The texts on Acathla do not say exactly where the portal would come from or what dimension that it is linked to, only that the world would be sucked into hell as a result of its opening. There are multiple dimensions that he could have ended up in. And that's assuming that he could survive wherever it is that he ended up long enough for us to find him. If we ever can."

"We have to try," Buffy stated strongly. Xander had stupidly tried to help, as he often did. She had to admit that his presence was usually for the better, as he had gone after her when she had confronted the Master a year ago. Buffy couldn't help but feel responsible for what had ended up happening. To all of them, if she was honest to herself. If she had killed Angelus earlier when she had had the chance, then it would have never come down to having to have Xander go through the portal to stop Acathla from destroying the world. If she had killed Angelus when she had had the chance, Ms. Calendar would still be alive. There were other students that she knew had likely been killed because she had not had it in her to kill Angelus. The Slayer looked down at the smooth surface of the large central library table, trying to imagine what Xander could be going through. It was enough to almost make her burst into tears. The sadness, anger, and self-loathing mixed and twisted into determination. She looked up at her Watcher, hoping that he knew as much as she believed he did. "We have to try."

xxx

March 25, 2021

Xander knew that he stank. Sweat, grease, blood, and ash coated his body and stained the ragged clothing that he wore. He had gotten used to it though, survival taking primary concern over the niceties of life. He couldn't imagine what had happened when he went through the portal though. He wasn't sure if he was in an alternate dimension. If the books had gotten it right and he was in a hell dimension someplace adjacent to Earth. It didn't matter though. Survival took precedence over the exact mechanics of what had happened. He did know that if Acathla had been able to suck the world into this one, then it would have gone to hell, and everyone he knew would be in his same position. But, while he had imagined horns and pointed tails, the truth was gleaming metal and glowing red eyes. It was a win for the good guys, though it wasn't without cost. It did suck that it was him that had to pay for it though. But, if he had had to do it all over again, he probably would do the exact same thing.

Coughing, Xander wiped a dirty gloved hand across his nose. He knew that in some point of view, that he had been one of the lucky ones there. He had been tagged for further investigation during his capture, the machines wanting to know exactly how he had arrived there. He had explained, but the Skynet intelligence units didn't have a direct frame of reference for magic. They knew about demons, but it wasn't like Skynet could do magic itself. The machine's sensors said he was telling the truth, and further probing had verified it, but it was not something that it could use. So he had been processed and sent to work.

That probably saved his life. From the way that he had had it described to him and had witnessed for a couple of months, the machines randomly picked from the able-bodied to work for them. Sometimes some of the younger ones were picked to perform maintenance work that couldn't be done efficiently by the machines in their rather large and bulky frames. It was more efficient evidently than specially designing machines themselves for some reason, or maybe Skynet just wanted to use the process to mentally beat humanity into submission. The rest of the humans were simply disposed off. First by gas, with the human workers then loading the bodies into large mechanical cremators. Those giant ovens ran night and day, the humans working in sixteen hour shifts. The heat of the monstrosities turned the camp into an inferno, the oppressive heat probably what hell was supposed to feel like in some poetic cosmic happenstance.

Scratching at his new tattoo, Xander looked across from him. The rest of the people that were crowded in the communal living quarters were in the same shape that he was in. Dirty and thin, with dead eyes that had the same thousand-yard stare from seeing too much death and not being able to do a damn thing about it. It had been a couple of months for him, and he couldn't imagine how many bodies he had moved. Thousands, hundreds of thousands. Maybe more. He hadn't tried to keep count. It hurt less that way. He knew that some had been in the camp longer. Years longer.

"You shouldn't scratch that," a voice said, the owner of it taking a seat next to Xander. The man settled himself on the hard ground and leaned back against the old concrete-reinforced wall of their prison. He was one of the old vets of the place. The man had been there since 2015. "Infection sets in, and you're fucked."

"Yeah, wouldn't want that, now would we," Xander said, looking over at the person that had taken a seat next to him. It was Martin, one of the other unlucky sons of bitches that had been pulled for the detail. He couldn't imagine how bad the man had it; how he had managed to survive six years in the hellhole he had only been in a couple of months. Martin was in his early thirties, with shaggy light brown hair and pale blue eyes, made even paler by the ash. A couple of scars marred his left cheek, right under his eye. A gift from some terminator during his rather lengthy imprisonment he had told Xander.

Martin looked around, noting the defeated looks on so many of the peoples' faces. They sat staring at nothing, some idly chewing the energy bars they had been given for sustenance. Just enough to allow them to work their next shift without keeling over. There was no defiance there, there usually never was. It was harder and harder to find men and women that still had some fire in their eyes. Too many had just given up; dead men walking. "John wants to see you."

"Really," Xander said, furrowing his eyebrows. He'd met the man a few times, and had been rather impressed. In his mid-thirties, John Connor had seemed out of place amidst the weary laborers. He never looked to have been beaten down by the Machines. Not like the other poor schmucks who were just trying to survive until the inevitable. Like cattle to the slaughter, if they weren't human. Never anger though. John never had anger for the humans that seemed to have given up the ghost. "Where is he?"

"Not here," Martin replied, looking up. He heard the sound of turbo fans from above as a transport approached the camp quickly. It grew louder as the transport shifted its props to hover mode, centering itself over the docking collar at the rear of the camp. The sound started to wind down as the airborne vehicle settled down and docked at the cargo staging area, ready to disgorge its load of captured humans.

Xander just frowned, knowing what the sound meant. The transports could hold hundreds of people, and they would be shoved down corridors and laser-scanned. Some would become workers to replace those that died, the rest being exterminated immediately, the tags mostly a formality at this point. Recordkeeping for Skynet.

It was ruthless and efficient. It was everything a machine would do. Martin had explained it to him. Explained it all. Judgment Day. The end of the world. Somehow computers had gotten advanced enough to take over everything, deciding that humanity was a threat that had to be eliminated. No emotions came into it. It was threat assessment. Emotions on the side of the humans in their fear to pull the plug on the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence that they had previously delighted in. Pure calculation and logic ending in only one solution. War. It had taken only microseconds for Skynet to come to that conclusion, and they were all paying the price for the hubris of mankind.

"Let's go," Martin said, standing up and walking forward, weaving his way in between the multitude of people sharing the too small room. Xander followed him, noticing a few looking at them with curiosity. Not that many, and as soon as they had passed, the eyes fell. Passivity founded upon the overwhelming strength that was the machine. Neither man could blame them.

It would be easy to give up. Martin had been tempted to himself, despite the fact that he had faced more hardship than many of them. Military school to West Point, he had known more discipline and had more survival instinct instilled in him than most. And even he had been tempted to give up. Until John Connor had found him.

xxx

August 12, 1998

Xander looked down both sides of the landing that he was on, making sure that nobody was taking too much of an interest in his presence. There were a few walking throughout the apartment complex, but he knew that it wasn't likely that he'd be able to clock any as terminators until it was too late. As it was, it was a good thing that he didn't recognize any faces. All the Resistance members that lasted any amount of time usually picked up a few models. Of course, that had largely been a process of trial and error.

Knocking on the door, Xander fidgeted as he waited for the door to open. He heard movement from the interior, and it wasn't long before the way was cleared. From inside, a man in his late seventies peered out, looking up at him.

Brow furrowed, it took the elderly man a few moments to figure out exactly who he was looking at. "Xander."

Xander nodded, smiling. It had truly been a long time. More for the old man than for him. More shenanigans thanks to the time stream.

"C'mon in," the man said, stepping back and waving the younger Resistance fighter inside his apartment. He had had the place for quite a while, renovations occurred at times as the decades changed, but he had always stayed. It was near the 105, as well as one of the buildings that he had had a hand in designing. The most important one. That was his day job though. He had done much much more. And had been waiting, maybe not for Xander in particular, but for ones like him. Soldiers.

Xander took a seat on an old couch, leaning back against its still plush surface. He looked over as the man went into the kitchenette and opened the refrigerator. "Do you want me to…"

"It's fine." The man waved a hand, indicating that he could do it himself. He walked back with a couple of beers in hand and took a seat on a recliner that cornered the sofa. He screwed the top off of one of the beers and handed it to Xander, undoing the top of his own as well. After taking a long pull from the bottle, he spoke, "I suppose I know why you're here."

"Yeah. Connor sent me." Xander took a sip from his beer too. Then a longer one. It was a lot better than the stuff that they had had to drink in the future past. And it was cold. It was the simple pleasures in life that one found themselves missing now. Ironic that.

The man nodded, smiling grimly, lines deepening on his face. He had lived so long, in relative peace that it had seemed almost like a dream what he had been through earlier in life. A dream that resulted in him waking up in a sweat every now and again. "You know, it felt like I was abandoning you. All of you, when Connor asked me to go back."

"It had to be done," Xander reassured the man. Time again. He knew that the same thought had been brewing through his head too. But orders were orders. And the mission came first. Even if they were spread as thin as they were back home. "It is good to see you Earl."

"You too," the engineer said, smiling wider. A real one this time. Thirty years had gone by since he had last seen Xander. But, for the younger man, it had been but months. If that. Xander looked no different than he had since the last time they had spoken.

Earl Boykins, engineer and creator of the one Resistance time machine in the 20th century drained his bottle. He stood up and walked into the bedroom, leaning down and pulling a case from underneath his bed. He carried it back to the main room, pulling it up and laying it on top of the coffee table in front of his fellow soldier.

Pulling it closer to him, Xander smiled briefly as he opened it. He ran a hand over an emblem that had been pasted onto the surface of the inside lid. It was a black shield, with a red helix in the center. A yellow sword pointed upwards overlaid on the DNA helix. It was the Resistance coat of arms, something that one of them had come up with in the spare time they had while hiding from the machines. Xander looked closer and took stock of what was inside of the case. He knew that this was only one of a number.

"I'll write down the address of the storage locker. Your storage locker," Boykins said, standing up again as Xander rooted through the container.

Xander nodded, pulling out a small handgun. It wouldn't do much against metal, but it was better to be armed with something. He slipped in a magazine that had been seated next to it in molded foam, racking the slide and making sure that it was good to go. Placing the handgun behind his back and securing it in his waistband, Xander looked up.

Boykins handed Xander a slip of paper, the address to one of the Resistance weapons dumps that he had set up in the area. He had had a long time to accumulate such equipment, especially at a time when security was laxer and computers weren't in everything.

"Thanks," Xander said, slipping the paper into a pocket. He would wait until dark to arm up more, the night giving him the option of have Burke there to back him up, and for heavy lifting. Picking up his beer, Xander finished it quickly, savoring the last of it in his mouth before swallowing.

Earl hesitated, before speaking again. "There's one more thing."

"Yeah?" Xander asked, watching as the man reached under the coffee table and pulled out a large photo album from the flat lower level underneath.

Opening the book, Earl flipped through it until he reached the right page, turning it around and handing it to Xander.

It took Xander a moment before he realized what it meant. It was an article, yellowed with age, about an explosion at a factory in 1984. There was a picture that accompanied it, of the man that was suspected to be behind the attack. "Kyle. So that's where he went. Damn."

"Yeah," Earl said, nodding in sympathy. He had more time to deal with it, but it wouldn't be that way for Xander. "Imagine having to open up the newspaper and reading that."

"Did he…did he try to come here?" Xander asked, staring at the picture. It was black and white and sensationalistic, and missed the truth completely. He could still remember Kyle, his gentle nature that belied how good of a soldier he truly was. One of Connor's best and most trusted.

"No. I don't know," Earl said slowly. "I was in Boston. Setting up a site. It was a month before I found out. I don't even know if he tried to come here looking for me."

"Do you know where-" Xander tried to say.

"No," Boykins said sharply, interrupting. "And that's not something you're supposed to be wondering about. Connor's orders. We aren't to go near his mother. We can't afford to bring metal down on her. Or him."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But, Kyle. I can't believe it." Xander stood up and picked up the case, leaving the bottle behind. It was the way of things though. He had lost a lot people before. As close as Kyle had been, and closer.

Funny to think that Kyle had died over a decade ago. Even though he had seen him a couple of months past. And Derek would be devastated if/when he found out. If he hadn't already, in some future time that was happening right now.

Boykins walked Xander to the door, stopping before he opened it. It was like feeling Kyle's death all over again. "It was good to see you again, sir."

"Yeah, I guess that's right," Xander said, smiling sadly. He had ended up as a first lieutenant before he had been sent back. Boykins was or had been a field engineer. A damn good one that had figured out the Skynet tech behind time travel extremely fast. Wasn't hard, the machines made the most efficient designs after all. It had just been a matter of transcribing the design to a format that could be used in the sixties, and knowing what was needed to put it all together in the past. "It's the last time that I'm going to see you, isn't it."

"Yeah." Earl nodded, smiling back. "You only get one."

That was the way of it. Unless one wanted to make theft, petty and not so petty, a way of life, the Resistance fighters would need supplies in the past. The one sent the farthest back was the logical choice to set up those supplies. Of course, it was also a risk. So everyone only got one. Xander was the first. Maybe even the only one, given how old he was getting.

"Hang in there, baby." Earl moved in and hugged the younger man impulsively. An effect of the years; one was allowed to do such things in old age.

Xander was surprised, but hugged his old friend back after a moment. It was like hugging a grandfather instead of a fellow soldier.

"You too," Xander said, as Boykins let go, grasping the door knob with his free hand. He opened the door, turning his head to look back over at the man that had aged three decades since last they saw each other. Months for him, decades for the other. A lifetime for another man that couldn't be there. "Thanks."

xxx

"What's the first step?" Burke said, pulling a couple of M79 grenade launchers from a crate. He slipped them into a canvas bag, putting in a few metal cases of grenades as well. The demon looked over his shoulder at Xander who was taking inventory of the other equipment that was in the large storage unit that Boykins had rented.

"You remember where you are right now?" Xander asked, pumping the action on a shotgun and feeling the weight of it. It was remarkably low-tech in many ways, though they still saw their use in the war against the machines. He'd gotten quite handy with a similar model over the years.

"New York," Burke said, moving on to the next shelf. He opened up another duffle bag and started to load it with bricks of C4 and detonators. This was just one of a number of places where such weapons were kept, each unknown to the other. He suspected that Connor had had Boykins set up sites not only for the usage of Resistance soldiers in the past, but also so that they would have weapons to use in the future. It would give them a head start, and maybe even shave off some of the time it took to win the war.

Xander nodded. They couldn't exactly go there. They couldn't exactly go for younger-Burke. If something happened to younger-Burke as well as the two of them, then it meant that Burke wouldn't exist in the future to join the Resistance. Or so the theory went. No, they would have to go for people that weren't currently, in the future at least, in the Resistance. Of course, they'd also need to find a way to convince people, but he figured that there might be some magical way that might help. That was a secondary objective though. His primary one was to just to find intelligence on who might be willing to join the Resistance in the future, if they were to survive Judgment Day as well as how Skynet actually came to be. To make plans to maximize the possibility of survival. "Sunnydale. We're heading to Sunnydale."

Burke turned and fixed Xander with a tight expression. They'd been through a lot, so he knew quite a bit about Xander's history. "You so sure that that's a good idea? The Slayer's going to be there. And she knows you on sight. That's attention that we don't need."

Xander shrugged. Burke was right, but he had his reasons.

Burke sighed and stepped forward, confronting Xander and crossing his massive arms across his chest. "If this is about Lauren…"

"It's not…it's not about her," Xander said, lips tight. It wasn't exactly. He would have wanted to go there anyway, but that wasn't the point. "You want to go looking for demons, you go to the Hellmouth."

"And you want to check up on your friends," Burke noted. It wasn't really a question, and didn't need to be one. He knew the human that well. His protective streak a mile wide.

"Yeah well, that too." Xander had to admit, that that had been a tertiary goal. The mission came first, but there were always those things. Things that they would have wanted to see, if they had a second chance. He imagined that Derek would want to see his brother again. That had to be more painful than anything he would see on the Hellmouth.

"Just so we know what we're doing," Burke said, turning back to his work. Connor had asked him to make sure that Xander's head was on straight for this. Given his recent loss, their leader had wanted to ensure that Xander wouldn't take any unnecessary risks and jeopardize the mission. The demon was sure that his commanding officer wouldn't, though he knew that gentle reminders couldn't hurt.

"We're going to need ID's," Xander said, knowing that while he might be able to get away with using his old one, it'd require getting back into the system to request a new copy. And that was information that could be used against him if Skynet came looking. Not to mention all the uncomfortable questions that would go along with it.

Burke turned to glance at him.

Xander looked back, shrugging. "Well, I'm going to need an ID."

xxx

It had been a couple of weeks. The case that Earl had given them contained a good amount of money, in addition to a few weapons, as well as ways to get more. Knowledge of the future had come in handy, and though the exact details had been lost for much, Boykins had had enough to make quite a bit in the stock market. Never enough to cause any real changes to the timeline, but enough to set up drops and fund any Resistance soldier that came through.

Xander waited as his computer booted up. He had gotten used to the tech that they had managed to scavenge in the future. Even taking into account that it had been cobbled together from various sources, their systems still ran much faster than a Pentium running Windows 95.

"I don't like this." Burke stood in front of the large window that faced the street below, the neon sign outside reflecting off the glass. He could see out, but nobody could see in. Night had fallen, but there were still people walking down the promenade, stopping at shops or even going to see a movie at the theater that their new apartment was located above.

"Yeah, well there aren't that many leads we have to go on," Xander said, connecting a browser to the Internet and typing in a few search terms into a search engine. It was primitive, but the war had left them without any real resources. If it hadn't been for him, Connor would never have learned about this piece of the Skynet puzzle. If it was even connected. "Shit."

"What is it?" Burke turned around and moved towards the kitchen where Xander was seating at the table in the center of it. He leaned over and looked at what the computer screen was displaying. It was a news article about a computer buyout that had happened about six months ago.

"Calax Research and Development was bought out. Their patents, IP, all of it had been purchased by Cyberdyne and CRS. Joint venture apparently. And, the local facility has been turned into an off-site high security server farm. Backup data storage also." Xander frowned. It would likely mean greater security than what had been in place when Buffy and he had broken in the last time. More security and actual people working there. "It still has some R&D going on though. I guess it wasn't worth it to move everything out to another site."

Xander got up and walked into the main room, headed towards the large closet that was set inside one of the side walls. He opened it up and pulled out a metal case.

"What do you want me to do?" Burke asked, watching as Xander armed himself. They had fashioned appropriate weapons for the environment in addition to guns they had acquired, meaning that the human would be carrying a couple of stakes as well.

Xander pulled a light jacket on, hiding the weapons that he had strapped on. Turning, he spoke, "see if you can pull up an employee list. Cross-reference it with what you can get on Cyberdyne. If anybody was transferred, especially in the research division, it may give a place to start looking."

"And you're going to do what exactly?" Burke asked, frowning. Backup would have been a better idea, although he knew that Xander could take care of himself.

"Just a look around," Xander replied. He headed into the short hallway that led to the entrance to the apartment. "See what kind of security they have."

xxx

They had been patrolling for an hour or so, and hadn't come across any vampires. Present company excluded of course. It had been months since Xander had disappeared, and though they had slowly started to get over it, it still left a hole in the group. Giles had looked relentlessly in the first weeks after Xander's disappearance, but all of that research had come to naught. Those weeks had turned longer and slowly Giles had stopped devoting as much time to it. They still looked, when there was some flash of an idea, or someone felt guilty, but it was getting less and less. Nobody wanted to say it, but they were also losing more and more hope.

The graveyard the pair was walking in was deserted. Nobody was rising, and there would be no visitors during the night. The air was still over the grassy field, the streetlights illuminating a few of the closest graves.

"How has school been," Angel said, trying to fill the silence with something. He knew that Buffy still blamed him somewhat for what had happened, and he really couldn't blame her. Giles likely felt the same way, as did the rest of them. It might not have been completely unfair, but he could understand it. It was something he had to cope with, and it wasn't like he didn't have the time.

Buffy shrugged, saying nothing for a few moments. "We just started. The rumors are still flying around, about what happened with Kendra and everything. But, since I'm still there it's dying down."

"And Xander?" Angel asked with some hesitation. "What are they saying about his disappearance?"

The Slayer didn't answer, looking away and surveying the grassy field. Gray tombstones and markers dotted it in various places, a testament to how many people had lost their lives in the town. Too many by far. She wondered how many she could have saved.

"What classes are you taking?" Angel said, changing the subject.

Buffy just stared at him, finding it an odd question. It was like it suddenly came to her whom she was dating.

"I think it's clear," Angel said, changing the subject again, noticing the bewildered expression on Buffy's face. "We can check by the warehouse district and call it a night."

Buffy just nodded.

xxx

Xander stood in the shadows of the building across the street from the rear of the Calax facility. Putting a night scope up to his eye, he scanned the building and the surrounding area, taking particular interest in the loading dock and the areas that weren't normally seen by visitors. There were multiple security cameras doing continuous sweeps of the rear, and it was likely that there would be more all around the building and parking lot intent on ferreting out people that shouldn't be there.

Another fence had been installed, just inside the old one, with long metal covered cables running to it. It was electrified, another measure to keep people out. There were probably reinforced doors and additional security systems inside as well. A frontal, or even direct rear assault would be suicide. If there was anything inside Calax, Xander knew that he'd have to find another way.

Hearing movement, Xander shoved the scope into a jacket pocket, turning and stepping into an alleyway that formed the boundary between two warehouses. Xander ducked behind a dumpster, resting his back against it and turning his head toward the sounds of people approaching. His gun was already out and ready, a reflex that had been ingrained so deeply that he didn't even need to think about it. He didn't know if it was people from Calax, but he wanted to be ready just in case.

It was a position that he had been in all too many times before.

xxx

September 14, 2022

All that could be heard was the crunching of metal on metal as the heavy tonnage of the HK tank made its way down the street. Its torso tracked side to side, the sensor suite enclosed in its head constantly searching out signs of human life for extermination. It was on lone patrol, in steady communications contact with an aerial unit that was assigned to the area in case it was ambushed. Usually it wasn't necessary for the tank to call in reinforcements. Improvements in armor and weapons technology had been made a geometric rate, far surpassing anything that the so-called Resistance could develop to fight against Skynet.

Reaching the end of the street, the HK turned, moving amongst piles of debris and concrete and upended pipes that used to be office buildings and shops. A couple of decades ago, there would have been a teeming human population that complained about the congestion and overpopulation in Los Angeles.

Not anymore though.

Xander breathed hard against the dirty gray cloth that he had wrapped around his face. His back was against an overhanging concrete block that had rebar sticking out along the sections that it had been blasted from. Turning his head, the Resistance soldier waited as he heard the tank slowly start to pass by. He had been taught that the machines used infrared at night to search out for them. The sensors they used were still not that sophisticated, and the humans found that they could block their heat signatures by hiding behind sufficiently large pieces of debris. The ruins helped them. Housed them and hid their presence from the untiring eyes of the machines.

He reached into a pouch that had been strapped to his shoulder and took out a demolition charge. It was a large cylindrical metal object with a handle at one end. Xander removed the dust plug and tested the circuit, waiting for it to go active. With well-practiced motions, Xander disengaged the safety, reaching up and grasping the handle. He twisted it clockwise, from safe to armed, priming the anti-tank charge. The light around the base of it flashing once in anticipation of its purpose. Training had engrained the instructions into his muscles, and he knew that it wouldn't start counting down until he let go of the handle. Xander looked over and nodded towards his partner who was hiding a few yards away as soon as he was ready.

He knew the man well. His fellow soldier was one of Connor's most trusted friends. A Los Angeles local, he had been a former football player. John hadn't hooked up with him in the camps, instead the man had been living with one of the scavenger groups that still inhabited the deepest dregs of the city, trying to survive rather than fighting back. The man had wanted more, and he had committed himself to the cause. Which was led to him being out that night, as the second man on the team.

That was the way of things. Two men sapper teams that scurried around the wasteland like rats, trying to take out what metal they could, scavenging what they could steal from the machines, or serving as decoys for a larger assault.

Barnes nodded back at his partner, taking a few crouched steps back and turning his grenade launcher towards a section of wall where there was a small gap. He aimed carefully, knowing that he only had one shot. The large man also had to be careful not to expose himself to the sensors of the ogre tank. They had started to see newer weapons than the high powered machine guns and cannons that the old versions used to have. Now they were using energy weapons of some kind, ones that could blast fast moving bursts of high-energy plasma at them. The concrete wouldn't matter much to the firepower the HKs had now if it chose to turn its attention to his general location.

Triggering his launcher, Barnes fired a thermal decoy across the front of the tank, aiming it as far across from them as he could. He didn't bother to just watch, knowing that he had his mark. The man had already pulled back, ducking behind the concrete wall as he pulled another rocket-propelled grenade from a bandolier that was strapped across his chest. This time it was a high explosive that had been modified with armor-piercing capability. Good enough on a multitude of the humanoid units that they had found themselves encountering.

The heat grenade traveled about twenty feet, before it ignited. A mixture of phosphorus, magnesium, and other chemicals created an extremely hot, but long-burning flame. It was perfect for drawing the attention of the HKs. The relatively primitive AI that was housed in the center of the torso of the tank did not think very well, performing only rudimentary analyses on the heat signature that it had just picked up. Headlights turned in the direction of the flare, scanning for its location. Swiveling its mounted plasma cannons at it, the HK attempted to get a lock on what it presumed to be a human trying to hide.

Xander heard the machine move further towards the decoy. He let go of the handle of the demolition charge and shifted it into a throwing position in a well-practiced move. He didn't have much time now as the fuse was already burning its way down its five second countdown. Stepping up and around the corner of the concrete wall, Xander flung the demo charge as hard as he could underneath the center of the tank, in the gap between treads where the armor was weakest and he could place it as close to the ogre's computer brain as he could.

He didn't bother to see if he had hit the mark, instead turning and diving back behind the concrete overhang. The machine intelligence in the tanks, though still relatively primitive, still thought faster than a human. Xander had seen more than one soldier get their guts blown out because they stuck around too long to admire their handiwork. Sometimes it was shrapnel and fragmentation from the explosion and compression wave that ripped through their bodies. Others didn't anticipate the speed in which the tanks could swivel their mounted guns.

The explosion sounded, and was all the evidence necessary to know that it had been a successful strike. Shrapnel flew in all directions as the armor of the tank was compromised, bits of hydraulics, gears, and wiring spewing out.

Xander smiled grimly as he heard the sound, picking up his shotgun and inching towards the corner again. He peeked out, making sure that the ogre had truly been slain and was not simply playing dead. Satisfied, Xander approached it quickly, sweeping the area back and forth with his shotgun while Barnes backed him up.

It wasn't like the shotgun would do much against such a beast. It was barely capable of bringing down one of the up-armored humanoid hunter-killers that Skynet deployed against them. It was filled with slugs, of course. Pellets being of no use against the titanium/coltan armor of the 700 series and up. It used to be easier, with assault rifles being useful against the 90 series and even the T-600's if the right areas were hit, but Skynet had soon adapted, creating and testing more and more varieties of machines against them.

"What do we got?" Barnes said, turning and scanning the area behind them. Another HK, probably an aerial version would be sent soon. Skynet was linked to all of its larger forces and would know when one was taken out. Especially on a routine patrol, it would be able to muster a recon force to determine what had happened quickly.

"Scrap metal," Xander said, nudging some of the twisted and burnt metal with a booted foot. He searched around for anything useful though. But, there usually wasn't. While the micro-fusion reactors that powered the ten meter tall behemoths were nuclear, they didn't go critical when blown to hell. It was one of the universe's little favors to them. Didn't mean that anything useful was left behind though.

Barnes nodded, glancing back towards Xander. "We should get going."

"Yeah," Xander noted, just as he heard the whine of an aerial HK start up in the distance. The search for them was already on. They needed to get underground quickly to avoid being found. They'd taken out another Skynet battle unit, that was enough for now. "Let's go."

xxx

August 27, 1998

His heart ached as he identified who it was that was walking across the alleyway. It had been seven years, but he could identify Buffy's voice anywhere. The other one had to be Angel, who would be a welcome sight as well. But, he couldn't jump out and greet them. That was part of the mission too. His presence back amongst them would be identifiable. It would raise too many questions and too many flags that would be noticed by the system.

Xander had checked the local missing persons reports as soon as he had gotten into town. He was there, starting a few weeks after he had disappeared. But, it had gone mostly unnoticed. His parents hadn't cared enough to try to keep it in the news and the public eye, and disappearances were a dime a dozen in Sunnydale. No one cared, and those that did would have known what happened, and how useless it would have been to plaster posters everywhere.

In some ways it was a boon that there were so many disappearances to cover his own disappearance. In case he ever had to deal with officials in an official capacity it would prove difficult to identify him if he was captured and uncooperative. Not to mention that he looked seven years older.

Hearing the voices fade, Xander relaxed a little, still on guard, but inside he slumped. It hadn't exactly been a close call, but it had hit like a gut punch. He was expecting it of course, but never something as close as that. He had to shake it off. He still had work to do.

xxx

Angel stopped as he started to round the corner past the warehouses that they had just walked behind. There had been no demon activity there either, a slow night all things considered. Maybe it was appropriate given that the number of teens out at night was not as high as it had been during the summer. Something stopped him though. He smelled something familiar. Something he couldn't quite place, but it felt very familiar.

"What is it?" Buffy said, turning around to look at the way that they had come. There was nothing that she could sense. No demons or vampires had jumped out to attack them, and nothing moving that she could hear.

Angel frowned, furrowing his brow. It played at the edge of his mind, but he couldn't quite get at it. He shook his head, shaking the feeling off. "Nothing. It's nothing. Let's go."

Buffy nodded, starting forward again and heading around the corner with Angel.

xxx

"Find anything?" Burke asked, looking up as Xander pulled out his handgun and laid on the counter. He had been digging around on the Internet as much as he could, trying to see what he could find out about the employees of Calax. He was no hacker, but he had learned some tricks about cyber-system security back home, and the systems used here were much more primitive. He could at least access some of the HR systems at the company, pulling down some of the employee and contractor lists, along with job titles. Cyberdyne would probably be a bit harder, but he had determined that there was a network connection between the two companies' computer systems that could be useful in penetrating the larger internal network.

"They've upgraded their security systems. I need you to see if they're running it through the city power grid, and if they have their own backups." Xander pulled the door to the refrigerator open, pulling out a soda. They kept it well-stocked, full of things that they hadn't had in almost a decade. Taking a seat at the kitchen table, he noticed Burke looking at him intently. "Please."

Bending down to work again, Burke tapped at the computer's keys with the tips of his claws. He had to be careful not to damage the machine. "Right. Do you have any idea what you're looking for?"

Xander shrugged. He was grasping at anything now. There were no orders from above anymore. "When Moloch happened, we didn't take the body with us. If Calax kept it, they could have kept working on it, trying to see what it…him tick. We have no idea what kind of jury-rigging Moloch did to make a robot body to tool around in."

"You're thinking that it could have been more mechanical than magical?" Burke asked. He had been briefed about Xander's experiences with the computer company. From his uncle's tenure there as part of the custodial staff, to the demon Moloch's usurpation of the company to try to become free of his noncorporeal form.

"We've seen the same things." Xander leaned back in his chair, thinking aloud. "Whether a computer brain or a mushy one, the same things need to happen to move a body. We have nerves and stuff, and the machines have neural nets and circuits. Moloch, he had to have used something."

"And that something could lead to the development of a neural net processor by Cyberdyne." Burke had to frown at the dark supposition. The brain for the national defense system of the most powerful country in the world being based on a demon that wanted to take over the world was not something that he wanted to think about. It made some sort of sense. Too much sense actually.

"It could explain why Cyberdyne is picking up steam again after its headquarters were blown to hell in '91," Xander threw out, referring to the reported destruction of the Los Angeles facility of the large computer development firm. They'd nearly gone out of business, but some strategic moves and divestitures had allowed the company to free up cash flow and reinvent itself.

Burke smiled grimly, the tips of his fangs showing through his lips. "I'll keep looking and see if I can pull up a list of Cyberdyne personnel that may be interacting with these guys. Any ideas on how you're going to get in?"

"Not yet," Xander admitted. He was thinking about it though. They were in for a long night.

xxx

Turning his head back and forth, Xander looked at himself in the mirror. He hadn't slept well, and there were bags under his eyes. It was odd, a bed was more than he had had in the future, but here he was, unable to take simple comfort in having the simple comforts.

Rubbing his chin, Xander heard his hand scraping against the stubble that had accumulated under there. He had stopped shaving, wanting to be able to be less recognizable to people that had known him. His hair had started growing out too, a little more fashionable than the chopped up mess he had had in the future, where scissors and mirrors had been a commodity. He looked younger than his years, odd though it was considering how the future tended to age people. The facial hair helped a little, but he could still tell that it was him. Especially the eyes.

He heard Burke walk around in the kitchen, probably preparing breakfast. One of the other simple comforts that they had been denied. He imagined that if he drove into Los Angeles, he could get to 10250 Santa Monica Blvd easily enough. Only now, it would be the Century City Mall, not Century Work Camp. Both would be filled with people, but only one of them by choice.

Xander sighed, washing his hands in the sink and drying them on a towel that hung on a rack next to it. He had work to do, and dwelling on the future didn't help stop it.

xxx

"So what is it that you're looking for?" the worker asked, hurrying to catch up to the man that was now walking down the concrete corridor, looking at the various animals that were kept in chain-link cages on either side.

Xander just kept looking, dismissing many of the dogs for various reasons. Too big, temperament looked off, age, breed there were a number of reasons not to pick most of them. It occurred to him that he should look for a park or something; he couldn't have a dog just lie around inside all day. "Something small, and young. I need something that can be trained."

"Like a guard dog or something?" the man inquired, catching up to the man that was a few years younger than him. He had only been working at the pound for a few weeks, but had heard about the different types that could come around looking for dogs. Most of them only wanted a companion, but it wasn't unknown for someone to come in looking for a fighter. It was odd to look for a small dog though. There were more likely candidates that had already been passed over, including a pure-bred German shepherd that had been found roaming the streets a little while ago.

"Just something that can bark. But, that can play with the kids," Xander said, looking at the man and smiling as innocently as he could. Size didn't really matter. After all, there was no chance that a dog of any size would be a match against a terminator if it came around. At best, it would be an early warning system for them, giving them a half minute or so head start at retreating. Bad news for the dog of course, which was unfortunate. They tended to get close to their guard dogs in the future, and the loss of any of them was not only a strategic loss, but the loss of a fellow soldier as well.

The man nodded, getting a good vibe off of the guy. Weird, but good. He had the feeling that Xander would take care of any dog that he placed with him. "Well, there's a rat terrier mix that we have. Good temperament. And he's pretty young too as far as we can tell. Stray, but we checked him out. He's healthy."

"Okay, let me see him." Xander followed the man further down the line, stopping in front of a cage. Xander knelt down as a small furry dog walked to the barrier, pushing its snout in between one of the empty gaps to sniff out the people that were in front of his cage.

Xander examined him carefully. The dog was small, white fur with black patches on the body, with brown fur around the eyes, a strip of white between them. One ear was bent while the other was cocked as the little dog examined him closely. Sticking a hand out carefully, Xander let the dog lick his fingers, seeing how the dog would react. The dog seemed to be a good choice, although he knew that terriers could be troublesome. It depended much on the training and discipline of course. They had been lucky that a few in the Resistance had experience with dogs and were able to train up a good quantity of them as guards to help screen people going into the bunkers. It had been John's idea, and he had been one of those tasked with finding strays and bringing them in. They'd lost a number of good soldiers before they had managed to get enough trained, most of them originally having gone feral in the years after Judgment Day. Of course, he would still have to make sure that the dog wouldn't bark at Burke.

"Good dog," Xander said, standing up and turning back towards the animal shelter employee. "I'll take him."

xxx

"Joseph Frakes. Ph.D. in computer science from CalSci. Undergrad at Berkeley, with an emphasis on artificial intelligence and quantum computing," Xander read off of one of the computer printouts that Burke had made during his time away. The demon had managed to find more names, one of which showed up in the human resources databases of both companies at one time or another. "Two years at Cyber Research Systems, five at Cyberdyne. And now he's head of R&D at Calax. Great."

"I still don't know what he's working on now though," Burke interjected, looking down as the small dog they now owned leaned against his lower leg and wagged its tail. He frowned, annoyed at the little dog's constant interest in him. Still, it was better than not having the canine there. "It could be completely unrelated to Skynet. It wasn't a transfer. He left Cyberdyne to work for Calax. We going to take him out?"

"Not yet." Xander flipped the page, reading further. There was little that was directly related to the future. At best, the researcher's background and education simply meant that he was qualified to be able to work on artificial intelligence systems. Frakes had published a number of papers on the development of AI systems, but nothing directly defense related.

There was a picture on the back page. Frakes was in his forties, with thinning hair, but a bright smile. It was a company-taken photo, but the man was wearing a Looney Tunes tie. A man with a sense of humor. Xander frowned as he stared at it, it used to be easier when it was just machines. "I want to know what kind of research they're doing at Calax before we do anything we can't take back."

"I can't get any further inside their systems from the outside. They have some pretty advanced cyber-security, I can't crack it with this." Burke pointed down at the laptop he had. It was ironic that more advanced technology would be a help now rather than a nightmare. "And I'm pretty sure the important stuff is going to be kept on systems without a direct connection to the outside. We'll have to go in to access them; I did manage to pull up some schematics and blueprints from the city planning office. Only easy part all day. Someone put in a couple of backdoors in the city's computer system, so it wasn't hard to crack."

The demon dropped an arm, extending his claws as the dog rubbed his back on them, scratching it. The little dog knew a good thing when he saw it.

Xander looked up at him, a stray memory crossing his mind of old friends. Before he had come back he hadn't thought about them for quite a while, but it was all starting to flood back with interest. "Buffy and Angel were there."

Burke stared at him for a moment before responding, sitting up straight at that bit of news. "The Slayer? Did she see you?"

"No," Xander said, shaking his head. He sighed, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his eyes. There were quite a few other sheets to go through, but Frakes was the most promising lead for now. It did occur to him that he'd have to go try to find out what actually happened to Ted's remains as well. They had faced a lot more technology than it seemed. "I hid. But, she was on patrol near the building. Sunnydale ain't that big."

"Great," Burke replied sarcastically. Less than a month in town, and already they had almost been stumbled upon by someone that would actually recognize Xander. "I've put together a list of stuff we need to be able to break into the facility. If you think that's what we should try now."

Xander nodded, he could work on acquiring those during the day. "Only way to figure out what to do. I guess we can go get a closer look at Calax tomorrow night. I want you to hit Willy's during the day. See what's going on in town; if there's anything in particular we should be worrying about. Watch out for the Slayer though. There are some things we probably don't want to change here."

xxx

The pair of vampires walked down the street, a little more cautiously than they would have a few months ago. The Slayer had changed. While before she would be more carefree and therefore sloppy, she was much more focused on her work now. Which made it all the more dangerous for the nightlife that inhabited the Hellmouth.

They had already fed, the corpse hidden in a dumpster a few blocks back, when they heard the wind start to blow. It was localized though, with the trees that dotted the graveyard they were standing beside, still and unmoving in the night air.

"What's that?" one of them asked, turning towards the noise. He was the taller of the two, though very thin. He caught flashes of light, blue and purple and white, as the crackling of lightning sounded. Hopping the fence easily, he strode towards the light and sound, the other vampire trailing after him.

The two demons watched as a white sphere of light appeared between a few grey tombstones, expanding in size for a few seconds. It sparked, sending up lightning in all directions.

The first vampire squinted his eyes, raising an arm to block out the light that was nearly blinding in intensity. The shorter one looked on nervously, wondering if they should leave. He had only been around a few decades, but even he knew that curiosity could be deadly on the Hellmouth. Even for the likes of them.

The light stopped before they could decide what to do, disappearing to reveal a charred through circular area as if the energy sphere had been extremely hot. It seemed to have destroyed everything within, as a chunk of grass was missing. The stone of one of grave markers that the time bubble had crossed through was cut in half, the edge glowing red hot. In the middle of the circular depression crouched a figure, heavily built, but completely naked.

"What the hell?" the two vampires said, nearly simultaneously. They looked on as the man stood up, his muscles bulging as he approached the two. Standing, he was huge and built like a tank, but he looked human enough. The only frame of reference for the two of them was that it had to be some sort of magical portal to an alternate dimension, though one with humans.

The figure stopped in front of the two vampires, its eyes scanning back and forth at the pair. Looking the taller one up and down, it scanned the figure's topography analyzing its volume and dimensions to ensure that the clothing would fit. The naked cyborg looked further, scanning deeper with its thermographic sensors. The heat signature, or lack thereof, indicated that it was a vampire. As was the other one.

"Your clothes. Give them to me," the figure said, standing still as the two vampires walked closer, flanking it on both sides.

"Right," the first vampire said, shifting its face to reveal sharp fangs and yellow glowing eyes. A devilish grin marked his face. "I don't think that's what you have to worry about."

The cyborg said nothing, its left arm darting forward to grasp the vampire that had spoken by the throat. Not to choke, since vampires did not breath, but simply to keep it in place. The vampire grabbed the arm, trying to wrench itself free, but it was no use against the cold mechanical strength of the terminator. Looking to its right, the cyborg moved its right arm, its hand racing up and forward, grabbing the other vampire by the throat and twisting hard.

The movement crushed and broke the vampire's neck and spine completely, causing the demonically animated corpse to lose cohesion, turning it into dust.

The terminator turned back to the first vampire and tossed it to the grass, speaking unemotionally. "Now."

The vampire hurried to comply, taking off its jacket and shirt. It didn't know what the hell the being that had come through the portal was, but he had seen how easily his fellow vampire had been dusted. He didn't want to give the hulk any reason to do the same to him.

As soon as the vampire was done undressing, the terminator reached down and grabbed the vampire by the throat, twisting it and destroying the vampire in the same manner as he had dispatched the first. While it did not have to be subtle in carrying out its objectives, it did have programmed orders to make sure that its presence was as undetected as possible, including terminating anyone that had seen its appearance in the past.

Unspeaking, the machine crouched down and picked up the shirt that lay on the grass, dressing in silence. As it was dressing, the terminator looked up at the night sky to verify that the correct space-time coordinates had been reached, activating its primary objective. Skynet had loaded as much information as it could on its target, but there was not that much. It had a location and the general time. That would be enough of a start for its mission.


	3. Chapter Two: Blood Metal

**Chapter Two: Blood Metal**

August 29, 1998

The wide street was empty that early in the morning, and if anybody had bothered looking out the front windows of their nice suburban homes, they would have only seen a fairly average looking person walking his dog down the street. That was the point of it after all.

Xander had donned an easy disguise, perfect in its blandness. It was still August, so the sun was already up with no clouds to block it. It gave him the perfect excuse to put on a baseball cap with a wide brim and a pair of sunglasses. He wasn't all that recognizable from a distance, and as long as he didn't draw attention to himself, nobody would take a second glance at him. Not enough for anybody to be able to describe him in detail.

It was good that the dog was well-behaved. Not prone to running wild and pulling at his leash, the little dog was content to keep a steady pace as it looked around at lawns and home gardens that fronted the tract houses that they walked by. It was less conspicuous that way too.

Despite the approaching autumn, most of the trees were still green with leaves, the lawns well-watered and manicured and full of life. The sidewalks were clear, any fallen leaves quickly raked and bagged for removal by the garbage men. It was a symbol of suburbia, the sameness of it all had been boring in his youth. Now, he couldn't have wished but for a place like this to grow up and grow old in, none the wiser to the threats that were all around them, whether natural, supernatural, or of their own creation. At the very least, Earl would likely live the rest of his days without knowing the horrors of Skynet and Judgment Day. Again.

Coming to a stop in front of a low-growing tree, Xander looked across the street at the front of one particular home that looked just like the others, save for a slightly different shade of paint and a sign for a security company amidst a few bushes that needed to be trimmed. He bent down and wrapped the dog's leash around a branch that was growing nearer to the ground than most, and took a few steps back, pulling a camera from the pocket of his jacket.

Crouching down, Xander snapped a couple of pictures of the dog as it looked at him quizzically, wondering what the mechanical device was. Xander continued to take pictures, angling it further upwards to catch the house. He made sure to zoom in as much as he could, capturing an image of the security sign as well as what he could see through the windows.

The garage door to the house opened with a rumble, causing Xander to slide a few steps over and around the tree, making sure that he was as hidden as possible from the inhabitants of the house across the street. He made sure to glance behind him as well to ensure that there was nobody checking on the side he was closest to as well. Bringing up the camera again, Xander scanned the now open garage with the viewfinder, taking what pictures he could. From the looks of it, Frakes had a late model Ford Taurus, which Xander took a picture of so that he could get the license plate.

More than that, the man had a son, at least 16, who was now pulling out of the driveway in a Mustang that looked to be pretty new. Xander took a couple of pictures of that too, getting a few good shots of the son as well as the Mustang's license plate. He couldn't place the boy offhand, though it wasn't like he knew everybody at a school he hadn't been to in years. Besides, he wasn't exactly sure about where the district zoning ended, and Joseph Frakes' son could go to Fondren.

Satisfied that he had gotten as much information as he could, Xander reached up and untied the dog's leash, walking further down the street once more as if he was just taking his dog for a walk. Even the small terrier seemed none the wiser, happily padding down the sidewalk, tongue lolling out of the side of its mouth as it walked around the sidewalk excitedly. Xander look down at the dog, smiling briefly. It was certainly much different than the majority of dogs they had around in the tunnels and bunkers they lived in.

Sighing, Xander scanned the neighborhood as well. From the cars to the people that were just now leaving for work and school, it was as if the small community was just coming to life. In many of those homes were likely computers, an increasing number would have Internet connections and they would simply get faster and more powerful as the years went on. None of them would realize just where all of the technology would lead.

It wasn't that technology was inherently evil, but Xander had quickly learned just how easily it could be misused, especially by itself. Despite the green grass and vibrant trees and bushes, this street would undoubtedly be hit in the coming war. In less than fifteen years, the missiles would fly and much of the surrounding cities around Los Angeles would be hit with nukes. That was followed up by chemical and biological weapons strikes once Skynet had determined where large numbers of demons were coming from.

In a way, they'd have it lucky. Most of them would die in the initial strikes, either seeing a bright flash and dying in wonderment as to what it was, or choking to death as their guts and lungs turned to liquid. The living had it worse, a long and lingering death as the machines beat them down into submission, never knowing anything but implacable extermination from the machines. It wasn't even that the enemy hated them; it was simply that they were too much of a threat to keep around.

In a way, he couldn't really blame Skynet. They had started the war after all.

Shaking off the melancholy feeling, Xander started to walk faster, the little dog beating its short legs more quickly in order to keep up. It barked once as it jogged along, Xander glancing down at it again. He'd have to come up with a name for the terrier one of these days. That would be the normal suburban thing to do.

xxx

December 29, 2022

The road was mostly clear at this point. He had passed through a couple of the larger neighboring cities an hour or so ago, and though they hadn't been nuked in the initial attack, they had been hit with more conventional weapons as the machines built up its forces and started to expand throughout the world. The benefit of living in a non-strategic area he supposed.

Burbank, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard. There was nothing left except the remains of what humanity had laid down. The humans had perished, their remains still dotting the skeletal remnants of buildings and houses. Those that had managed to survive the oncoming storm had all run, most to be caught by Skynet hunting parties or by raiders that turned on their fellow men. Even after the humans had revolted and started to strike back against the machines, there were still those that did not join up. Preferring to prey upon whatever they could they stole from whatever hidden communities existed, caring about only their own survival.

Xander stopped the jeep, the car skidding to a stop in front of a rusted out sign. The letters were mostly gone, but a few could still be seen. He didn't need it though; he knew exactly what it used to say. "Welcome to Sunnydale."

Barnes ignored the comment, as Xander drove forward again. He took off his hat and scratched his bald head before replacing it. It was only a few minutes longer, the short time a symptom of how small a town it used to be. Made even smaller by the devastation that had been wrought there by the machines.

Nothing was alive as far as he could tell. The bits of tree and bush that still existed were all brown and withered. Not just from the lack of water, but also from the chemical weapons that had been used in the area. Looking down, Barnes made sure that their NBC sensor still declared that it was clean. They had suits and gasmasks, but those were too bulky to fight effectively in. Especially against things that could easily move faster than them.

The jeep stopped again, this time in front of a large blackened ruin. From the look of the pit, it had been the center of more than one Skynet strafing or bombing run. The buildings that had once stood on the area had all but disappeared, only bits of the gymnasium and main building's foundations and outer walls still standing. In some areas, there was even some of the second story still attached to the load bearing portions of the walls. Although, most of the school had been burned out, as if to burn out an infection.

"This it?" Barnes turned his head to gaze at their destination. He didn't know exactly what to expect, but Connor had ordered him to accompany Xander on some classified operation. One that required them to venture relatively far from their base of operations, crossing hours of Skynet-controlled territory. And they had had to do it during the day.

Xander edged the car to the left, pulling it closer to the edge of the giant hole. He made sure that the vehicle wouldn't be easily seen from above, in case any roving HK's decided to take a potshot at the jeep and destroy their way back. "Were you expecting something grander? Where else would you think the mouth of Hell would be?"

"Not a school," Barnes replied, unbuckling his seatbelt. He slung the shotgun that he had been holding over his shoulder and walked to the rear of the jeep. He pulled a couple of duffle bags out and placed them on the ground, nudging them to the left with his foot as Xander came around. Rooting around inside the bed of the jeep, he took out another weapon as well.

"Yeah, well, it turned out to be oddly appropriate." Crouching down, Xander unzipped one of the duffle bags and pulled out a belt. He strapped it around his waist, adjusting it so that the stakes that had been attached were easy to access. He doubted there would be any vampires, given that there were no humans to prey on, but he couldn't be too careful. A couple of other esoteric instruments were there as well. After all, he wasn't exactly sure what he would find down there. "You want a stake?"

Barnes held up a large drum-fed shotgun and shook his head. "I'll trust in this, thanks."

"Yeah well, remember to aim for the knees or the head if it's a vampire," Xander instructed, though he doubted it was necessary. He transferred some of the tools and a bundle of rope into one of the bags, looping a pair of night vision goggles on his head as well. Barnes had already put on his and they were resting on his forehead.

Xander pulled out a cut-down assault rifle, attaching it to a sling that lay across his chest. He slung the duffle bag over his shoulder and walked towards the front of the jeep. Detaching the hook from the winch that was attached to the frame and unlocking the spindle, Xander dragged it to the edge of the pit and look down into it. He couldn't see to the bottom, despite the sun almost being overhead.

Barnes stepped forward as well, reaching into one of the side pockets on his pants and pulling out a couple of glowsticks. He cracked the plastic tubes against his leg and shook the sticks, the chemical reaction within throwing off green light. Tossing them down into the pit, Barnes watched as they fell their way to the bottom. It was deep.

They had tried to the same in Los Angeles, but the demons around there didn't have the highest opinion of humans. Raiders and machines had given them more than a justified reason to mistrust humans, and their previous attempts had gotten Barrera killed. Or maybe it was that those not living in Los Angeles might not have it as bad and therefore have more to lose. Either way, they were trying again.

Xander dropped the cable, watching it descend rapidly into the hole. He thought he saw movement in the green-cast shadows, but he couldn't really tell. Making sure that he had the remote for the winch, Xander clipped onto the cable and started down into the pit, Barnes descending after him.

It wasn't too long before they hit bottom, Xander detaching first and sweeping the area with his weapon. There were some remnants of life at the bottom, scraps of clothes and the discarded remains of canned food littering the area.

Bending down, Xander nudged one of the empty cans, noticing the layer of rust. It had been there for quite some time. There still could be some left, or they could just have moved on. Looking around, he tried to figure out which way to go. There were a couple of different choices, as the bottom of the pit seemed to be a node of some sort where multiple tunnels ended or began. Demons could use it as a way up as well as a way to escape the machines if they were being tracked.

He hadn't known about the cave network when he had lived in Sunnydale, though it surely would have been helpful now. As it was, they had to do things the hard way.

xxx

August 29, 1998

"Agincourt Systems is a subsidiary of the Kaliba Group," Burke said, watching as Xander started to arrange the equipment that he had purchased that afternoon. It hadn't been easy for the human to pick everything up, though the cash that they had allowed them to get what they needed with a minimum of questions. "I'm not seeing any links to Calax, Cyberdyne, or CRS. They probably just do home security and the like; I'm looking up where their local office is."

"See if you can find anything on their security processes too. If we break into his house, we need to know how long before we can expect a response." Xander picked up a set of night vision goggles, activating them and checking the battery life. They already had some of it on hand, but Boykins had given them mostly generic equipment. Breaking and entering required a number of other skills and devices. He'd had to go into Los Angeles to get some of it, and he had known where to go. It was another of the benefits of the future.

Judgment Day had made all men equal, and there were not an insignificant few that were into less than legal things in their prior lives. They either knew people in the past or where various lines of business that would be of help now would be located. Of course, he couldn't let on that he knew some of them in the future. But, it let him get into the right doors at least.

"It's on the list," Burke said, as he wrote down the address to the closest office for Agincourt. He switched the computer off after he had done so, turning to his own equipment. He had already packed everything he would need into a backpack, though there wasn't much. It was simply supposed to be a recon mission to scout out some of the security measures that Calax had as well as where they might be able to find some holes.

Xander put his goggles back into their case, placing it into a black duffle bag and zipping it up. He placed the rest of the equipment into different pockets, double-checking to make sure that he had everything he needed. It was mostly electronics and tools that would allow them to break into locks, though he didn't imagine that he'd need much of it tonight. Then again, it was better to be safe than sorry.

xxx

The terminator sat in front of the computer, tapping on the keyboard quickly as it searched through computer files in various networks across the city. It had detailed information on how to penetrate secured systems, and the computer network of the school districts it was searching through were hardly that well-protected.

It was not extremely fruitful however, as the machine only had a name and a general description and age. There was no photo to match against those taken by the school, and the search had netted more than one possibility. A closer examination would be necessary for the terminator to carry out its primary objective.

The terminator stood up and walked to the bed. Upon it lay a suit that it had purchased earlier that day. The vampire that it had gotten its current clothing had not had that much money, but a few other murders had netted the cyborg enough funds to purchase a computer and the suit, as well as other equipment. Extra hacking had allowed the machine to create a bank account against which to draw funds as well.

It removed the clothes that it was currently wearing quickly, replacing it with the well-fitting suit. It met with current preconceptions of the appearance of federal agents, and so would allow it to impersonate an FBI agent given the appropriate forged identification.

Placing a handgun at the small of its back and making sure that it was secure; the terminator turned around and headed out the door. It would be ready to start its search once it obtained suitable transportation.

xxx

"So, Faith is it?" Giles asked, looking over his glasses at the young woman that was currently sitting on top of one of the tables in the library. He frowned at that, wondering why she could not simply sit in one of the many chairs in the large room. "Is there a reason in particular why you have been called here?"

The brunette Slayer shook her head. "Nope. With my watcher on retreat, I figured that I'd use the chance to see the other Slayer in action."

"Well, it's a good thing that you're here," Willow said, looking up from the newspaper that she had been reading. She picked up the front page and gave it to Giles.

"Yes," Giles said, skimming through the newspaper. His frown deepened as he tried to read between the lines. That the story was below the fold was disappointing, but par for the course for the town. "Two people have disappeared from the Sunset Ridge District. And there have been a few murders that happened in the last couple of days. From the descriptions, it may indicate someone of incredible strength."

"A vampire?" Buffy asked, extending a hand for the newspaper.

Giles shook his head. He lowered the newspaper and gave it to Buffy. "There's no indication that death was brought upon by exsanguination. It seems-"

"Exsang…what?" asked Cordelia, who was wondering why she was still hanging out with the group. Xander had disappeared months ago, and it was unlikely that they would find him any time soon. While she had kept showing up because it was a tie to her boyfriend, it was getting less and less strong every passing day as he stayed gone.

"Blood loss. The victims did not die of blood loss." Giles explained quickly, before turning back to Buffy. "It seems likely that it was a demon of some sort."

"I guess that means I patrol Sunset Ridge," Buffy said, looking up at her Watcher and setting the newspaper on the table.

Giles looked at her, and then glanced over at the other Slayer. "Perhaps you should take Faith with you as well."

"Great patrolling. Together," Buffy said, trying to muster some amount of enthusiasm, but not really achieving it.

She glanced at her watch, and then stood up. "Well, I'm good for patrolling. Late-ish, though. I promised Mom I'd be home for dinner."

Willow looked up at her friend with wide eyes, then nodded her heads towards Faith. She had to do it a couple of times before Buffy got the hint.

Buffy sighed inside and looked at the other Slayer, forcing a smile onto her face. "Um, to which you're also invited, of course, dinner with us."

Faith smirked at her, easily picking up on the apprehension. "Dying to meet the fam. I'm in."

xxx

December 29, 2022

"Where now?" Barnes said, bringing his weapon around as he unclipped himself from the cable. It was a little dangerous, as it meant that they had to leave the cable as it was. A third man could not be afforded to their team, the number of soldiers in defense of their home back in Los Angeles was stretched thin enough as it was. There had been an assault on one of their bunkers in West Hollywood, and most of the soldiers stationed there had been killed.

"This one." Xander pointed the way forward with his rifle, pulling his night vision goggles over his head and activating them in thermal mode as he made his way through the darkness. From the scrape of boot soles on packed dirt and rock, he knew that Barnes was behind him, turning every so often to ensure that nothing was following them.

They walked in silence for what felt like half an hour, the only sound in the tunnels was their laborious journey through the underground rock that was now home to the inhabitants of Sunnydale. There had been humans that had taken sanctuary down there, trying to find shelter and safety from the robotic killing machines on the surface. The bones that were strewn about revealed that there had been no safety to be found down below. Hopefully things would go a little differently this time.

They reached a small grotto, a small stream of water at the far end leading into a little pool near the center of the cavern. Xander scanned around, noticing that the ceiling of the cave was rather high, many stalactites pointing their way down. There were also numerous openings amongst the rock walls all around them, at different levels. In the center, beside the pool of water was a small depression. A pit had been made, and the bones of many had been gathered haphazardly in the center.

Xander stared at it, noticing that the bones were reflecting too much of the minimal cave light that was emitted by the glowing cave worms that hung from the ceilings. It took him a moment to realize what he was looking at one he switched to night vision.

He stepped closer, reaching down with a hand and picking up a heavy skull. It had been smashed, one of the eyes torn from its socket, the other cracked, its red lens dull and unlit. It was the head of a terminator, and from the looks of it one of the old series 90's.

"What is it?" Barnes said, glancing at Xander as he turned around. Hearing distant skittering, he looked at the various openings, trying to figure out which one it came from. He had no idea where it truly originated however.

"Terminators. Parts at least. A lot of them. I don't know if that's a good thing, or a bad thing." Xander put the skull back into the pile, standing up and bringing his gun around as the sound got louder. He moved closer to Barnes, standing back to back to minimize the chance that they would get ambushed. "Hold your fire unless they attack first."

Barnes simply nodded, though he knew that Xander couldn't see.

"Who are you?" a voice boomed out, bouncing off of the granite walls of the cavern and making it impossible to determine where it was coming from.

Xander looked around, trying to pin it down, but he knew that it was impossible. That was getting annoying. "I'm from the Resistance. I'm here looking for you."

"And why would that be?" the voice said, coming closer, though still impossible to peg where it was originating from.

"I come with a message," Xander said, still circling around, pointing his rifle at the darkness. "It needs to be in person. Meet me."

There was only silence, the tension building as the seconds ticked by. It was winter, but he was sweating, partly because of the situation, and partly because it was so hot in the caves. He didn't want to think that it was related to Hell, which should have been physically impossible since it was more of a mystical than a geographic connection. It was probably a geothermal vent or hot spot, but that didn't make him feel any better.

After a minute had passed, Xander heard a series of clanking sounds, as if something hard was rolling his way. Following it, Xander looked down to see a dented metal skull rolling towards him, coming to a stop in front of him, a few wires trailing behind it from the neck.

A light appeared in one of the tunnel entrances, and then another and another. They caused the night vision goggles to flare, Barnes cursing as he removed his.

Xander squinted in the bright light as he pulled his goggles down. He still held onto his rifle though, careful in case it was the prelude to an attack. He saw a large black shape leap from an opening about halfway up the far wall and clamp onto a particularly long stalactite above them. It jumped with blazing speed to a cliff to his left, and then down to the ground next to the pit of terminator parts.

It was a large black demon with thick scales. Large claws tipped powerful-looking hands that appeared strong enough to pull the head off of a terminator, or a human for that matter. From the way that it carried itself, this was probably the leader. The others were still within the tunnels, their presence easily heard now, but not seen.

The demon raised its head, small horns on its forehead, and showing pointed teeth. He looked at the one that had spoken, noticing fear, but also strength. "What do you want?"

"I come with a message," Xander said, lowering his gun. The demon was unarmed, though it wasn't like it needed weapons. Dressed in rags that used to be human clothes, it would seem that the demon had been around there for quite a while. "From John Connor."

"I have heard that name," the demon said, glancing to the man's companion. That one was still holding his weapon on him, wary of his close proximity. To the man's credit, he did not fire. "It means little to me though. Here. What do you want?"

"We're dying. We're all dying. Human and demon. Your kind. My kind. Skynet will not stop hunting either of us," Xander stated, trying to see if he could read the demon's facial expressions. It was nigh impossible, and he did not recognize the species even if he could tell what was going on behind its red eyes.

"What concern is it of mine what happens to you and yours?" The demon kicked the terminator head that he had thrown down, the skull landing on the pile with its brethren. "I can take care of them well enough here."

"We have the most organized resistance against them there is. But, if we go down… they're not going to stop at us, and Skynet will concentrate on you and yours. Wipe you out. All of you." Xander glanced up, hearing chattering as the demons in the audience made their own opinions known in an incredibly audible fashion. A variety of languages were spoken, and he didn't know which way they would go. He wasn't even sure how much say the leader had with the rest of the group.

The demon simply stared at the human, noticing that while he was afraid, it was not necessarily a fear of the unknown. "You're not like the others. You know us."

Xander nodded. "I was born here. I was born on the Hellmouth. I know what you are. I've known since before Judgment Day, the day that Skynet judged both us and found us wanting. We're the same. Or we are now."

"I believe you speak the truth, human," the demon said after a moment. It crossed its arms over its chest, considering if it should simply kill both of the men and be done with it. Still, what he had said so far had merit. Of course it would not be as simple as the equity that the man spoke of. It may merit further consideration however. "What is the message that John Connor send you to give?"

"John Connor sent me with a question," Xander said, stepping forward and looking up at the demon without fear. He locked his eyes with the demon's red ones. "Will you join us?"

xxx

August 29, 1998

Xander dropped to the bottom of the tunnel, waving his flashlight towards each end to make sure that there was nobody there. Night had fallen an hour or so ago, and there would not be too many people still at work. They could have gone even later, but the full security system would have been turned on. The building would be a little less secure, and so there would be a little less risk of being detected, even if they were currently below the building as opposed to in it.

"Clear," Xander said, moving forward. They had accessed the tunnel map beforehand and he knew where they were going. Of course, that didn't necessarily tell them about the private changes that had been done down there by the corporation. He was pretty sure that not all of them were known by the city planners either.

Burke looked around, noticing the cables that were running along the ceiling of the tunnel. Pipes and other cables ran along one wall as well, a string of lights traveling the length of the corridor on the other wall. "Looks like they're running a lot of power into the building. I'm pretty sure they have a backup supply too."

"Yeah," Xander said, taking a right as they reached an intersection. He walked about twenty meters before finding the junction box that he was looking for. Looking at it carefully, he made sure that it wasn't rigged to either electrocute him or to send a signal out if it was tampered with.

"Alright, let's do this." Xander removed a set of lock picks from his pocket and set to work on the small lock in the handle of the junction box door. It didn't take long before he was able to crack it, swinging the door open with gloved hands.

He stepped back, so that Burke could get a closer look. Xander held up a flashlight to brighten the mess of wires that lay within. He wasn't exactly sure what did what, but it had something to do with the security system. At least, that was what Burke had figured out.

"Check this out," Burke said, tapping a knuckle on the inside of the door. There was a sticker near the bottom, indicating the manufacturer of the system.

"Hunh," Xander said, reading the name off of the sticker. "I guess Agincourt does more than just home security. You figure it out?"

"Give me a second," Burke said, using his claws to move wires around. Moving closer, he looked deeper inside the junction box, trying to figure out what terminals went where. He wasn't exactly filled with confidence, but he was pretty sure that they could disable the electrified fence. Of course, that would cause an alarm that would alert security to their presence. "Yeah, we're screwed. I'm not going to be able to disable the system completely from here. I can take out a few of the outer alarms and the fence, but the inside control system isn't here. I'll have to verify at the next box, but I'm pretty sure that even if we can get in, somebody's going to know. This is pretty sophisticated stuff. They aren't fooling around."

Xander sighed, then looked down the hallway. It would have been nice to have had been sent back with an actual computer expert, but they were all needed in the cyber-war against Skynet. He was just lucky that Burke had some expertise in the area. "Great. Close it up, we'll check the next one."

The two moved further down, having to make a couple of more turns in order to find the next junction box that they had identified. The concrete-lined walls made them all uniformly dull, making it hard to determine which way was which.

Xander aimed his light at the ceiling, wondering exactly what was above their heads. He remembered that there were other tunnels under Sunnydale. Ones that were much less pleasant than the human-constructed one that they were currently in.

xxx

Dinner had passed uneventfully for the most part. Faith had had some fun trying to get a rise out of Buffy, but she had to admit that the other slayer's mother had been rather nice, all things considered. A bit too Leave it to Beaver for her tastes, but at least she cooked well.

It had been some time since she'd had a home-cooked meal. She could remember how long ago it had been, but she didn't like to think about that. Better to live in the now than to dwell on what happened in the past.

"Who's this?" Faith asked, picking up a small framed picture. They had finished up and were now in Buffy's room, preparing to go out on patrol. It was a little odd that Buffy's mother knew about Buffy being the Slayer. From what she had heard from her Watcher, it was supposed to be something secret, not talked about over family dinner.

"Who?" Buffy asked, as she rooted around in her closet for her spare stash of weapons.

Faith just continued to look at the picture. She recognized Buffy and her redheaded friend Willow, but there was a dark-haired boy that she had not yet met. "The guy in this picture."

Buffy frowned, as she dragged out a large black bag. She turned and walked over to her desk, looking over Faith's shoulder at the picture that she was holding. As she saw which one it was, she felt that old ache come back. "That's…that's Xander."

"Oh?" Faith said, glancing back at Buffy. She noticed the tight expression on her fellow Slayer's face, wondering exactly who he was. "What happened?"

"He disappeared," Buffy said, after a moment. She took the photo from Faith's hand and put it back on her desk. She had forgotten that it was even there, not having had the heart to look at it. "It was months ago. In May."

"Oh," Faith said, genuinely sympathetic this time. "Did a vampire get him?"

"No," Buffy said, turning to face the other Slayer. "Yes. Not exactly. It's complicated. C'mon, we need to patrol."

She turned away, her eyes watering a little.

xxx

"Well, that sucked." Xander leaned back in his seat. He glanced into the back of the van, where Burke was currently sitting, slightly hunched over so as to not hit his head on the ceiling. It was the only vehicle they could use that would hide Burke's presence, and it gave them space to hide all of their equipment and weapons.

"What do you want to do?" Burke asked, scratching his face with a claw. It had been a disappointment, although he wasn't exactly sure what he should have been expecting. Calax may not have been the largest company in the world, but if it was related to Skynet, then it would undoubtedly have very sophisticated security to keep people like them out. "We could kidnap Frakes. Force him to tell us what he's working on."

Xander said nothing, looking out the windshield. He had driven away from the building so as not to be spotted, stopping in the warehouse district underneath a burnt out street light. It was a tempting suggestion. All the things that had happened, and all that things that would happen. So much of the world gone, including just about everyone he knew. He hadn't been there for the deaths of most of them, but he had been there for some of the most important. He remembered what Sunnydale looked like after the fall. But, not all of it. "What was this? After…what did this part of town look like?"

Burke ducked down and looked out the windshield too.

xxx

January 4, 2022

The small reptilian demon ran as quickly as it could. It could nearly feel the glowing red eyes of the terminators that were after him. He had been running for weeks, doing his best to escape from the machines. He had been as careful as he could. From his original hiding place in Nevada, he had done his best to stay below the attention of the machines. He had travelled at night as much as possible, burrowing into the desert when Skynet scouting parties flew overhead. He had almost been caught a few times by the harvesters, even seeing a particularly brutal attack on a few humans that had been hiding out in an old abandoned gas station.

He didn't know if he had messed up, or if it was simply the unrelenting nature of the machines, but they had managed to find him. The Hellmouth had always drawn the supernatural, and it should have been the perfect place to hide. Unfortunately, Skynet had figured that out long ago. Its patrols had detected him up before he had gotten two blocks into town, and now he was on the run again.

An explosion sounded, and the blast threw the small demon against a pile of twisted girders. It scrambled to its feet, looking up at the source of the attack and seeing the large flying machine hover in mid-air a couple of hundred feet above him. The hatch at the bottom opened, disgorging two T-600's who landed on the rough concrete and asphalt with a loud thud as the flying hunter-killer flew off to continue its patrol. Two humanoid units would be more than enough for the one small and unarmed demon.

The two terminators scanned the area, their red eyes visible through the ripped and torn rubbery masks that they still wore. They were two members of an obsolete design, one of the first attempts to develop infiltration units that could seek out humans in their hiding places. However, they were too large and the skin was too artificial-looking to trick the humans, and so the eight foot tall behemoths were reprogrammed to serve as heavy assault troops where the HK tanks and aerials could not reach and as guards in the work camps that Skynet used to methodically exterminate biological life.

The demon tried to burrow into the concrete, but it was too hard. Looking around in all directions for a way out, the demon jumped from behind the girders and made a run for the only structure that was somewhat still standing. It was a warehouse, and though most of it had been demolished, some of the walls were still standing and supporting part of the roof.

The demon raised its arms to protect itself as the two T-600's locked their targeting scanners onto his rapidly moving form. They fired their Gatling guns in unison, attempting to terminate the demon before it could reach cover. The small demon managed to reach the warehouse somehow, and dove behind the wall, right as a stray round caught him in the lower leg.

The demon screamed in pain as it grabbed at its lower leg, a large hole bleeding thick blood profusely. He applied as much pressure as he could to the wound, groaning as he scrambled up against the wall. He knew that he couldn't run, and peeking around the corner, he could see the lumbering machines get closer. Pulling back again, its mind raced as it tried to think of what to do. But, there was really nothing that the demon could do against the walking death.

He closed his eyes in acceptance of the inevitable, but opened them again as he heard an explosion sound. It was probably another demon getting killed, and despite himself he had to see. What was happening was not something that he could have imagined.

A large black demon tossed a large satchel towards one of the T-600's, the other already having been blown apart by an explosion. The demon leapt behind a few cars near the far side of the road, gunfire stitching its way towards him.

A few seconds later, the satchel charge exploded, ripping through the terminator and shredding its chassis and skull. A few pieces had managed to penetrate, breaking the processor chip and deactivating the unit.

The small reptile demon struggled to his feet, one leg still bleeding. It hobbled out as the larger demon moved forward, stopping to pick up a large rock and smashing it hard on the head of the other T-600. It had been twitching its limbs, and evidently the demon that had saved him had not wanted to take any changes.

"Thank you," the reptile demon said, as the other one walked towards him. It stood over him, sizing him up. Hearing the whine of engines, the pair of them looked up and back, sunlight glinting off of the body of a rapidly approaching aerial HK.

"Come with me if you want to live," the larger demon said, turning back to face the one that he had just saved. He reached out a hand, and the other demon grasped it. He put the smaller demon's arm over his shoulder, and helped him to move towards cover.

xxx

August 30, 1998

"We go after Frakes, and it isn't what we thought, then he's seen us, and who we are can get out there. It's too big a risk," Xander said, looking out the window again. He remembered the drive out of Sunnydale. It had been as dismal as going. That hadn't even been the worst of it really, only the emotional impact greater because it had been his hometown. He'd been deployed in a number of places in the United States and elsewhere, even seeing action in Mexico and for a brief time in China. Nowhere had looked good.

"So what do we do?" Burke asked.

Xander glanced over his shoulder. "Find another way."

Burke shifted his gaze towards a pair of young women that should not be out there that late at night. One was blonde while the other was a brunette. "Is that the…"

Xander turned back around and looked at what Burke was looking at. He had to squint a little, but the face was easily recognizable, even after all of these years. His eyes widened as it became clear. "Get down."

The pair of them ducked down, Burke scrunching himself up as much as possible behind the forward seats so as to not be seen. Xander lay on his side, hiding himself behind the dashboard. Even though Sunnydale had always been a small town, it had just gotten a whole lot smaller.

xxx

Acquiring a car had taken longer than anticipated and the terminator had only had the chance to examine one school before class had let out yesterday. Unfortunately, the subject in question had not been at Fondren High School. That meant that it had had to wait an extra day before being able to check the next school on its list, Sunnydale High School.

It was fairly similar to the other school, with the same types of students all mixed together making it impossible to identify any one in particular. The terminator was forced to go through more subtle channels and attempt to gain an audience with the potential target before positive identification could be made.

"The principal will see you now," the school secretary said to the large man that had taken a seat against the wall of the school administration office. She watched as the man who had identified himself as a federal agent stand up and walk into the principal's office without so much as a thank you. Frowning, she turned back to her work.

xxx

"What can I do for you, Agent…?" Principal Snyder asked, as he stood and shook hands with the man. Inside he was relishing the federal agent's presence. The secretary had told him that the FBI agent was there about a student, and he loved the chance to have one of the students get exactly what they deserved. Normally, such a request required a court order, and interviews or interrogations had to be done with a parent's presence. But, in his excitement, the principal decided to forego the niceties of legal paperwork and procedure.

"Carmichael," the terminator said, looking at the short man through its red-tinted vision. It took a seat as the principal did. "I am looking for a student named Timothy Frakes."

"Frakes?" Principal Snyder repeated. He leaned over to his computer and typed in the name, pulling up the boy's record and schedule. Unfortunately, there was nothing to indicate that the boy was a delinquent of some kind; he had even the president of his last school's computer club. Although the principal knew that a clean record just meant that the student had never been caught. "He's in study hall now. I'll have my secretary call him in. You can use the office down the hall, it's empty."

The terminator looked at the man, not understanding and not caring why the principal was being so helpful without what it knew to be the required paperwork. It stood and spoke, "thank you for your cooperation."

xxx

"Sit down," the terminator said as the teenager walked into the office. It nodded towards an empty chair that sat before the vice principal's desk.

Tim sat down, wondering exactly why he had been called to see the principal. The wondering had only intensified as he had been told to see a federal agent in the vice principal's office. He looked up at the stoic looking FBI man. "What is this about? Do I need to call my parents?"

The terminator just looked down at the boy, running its sensors and recording both a facial scan and voice pattern. Both would prove useful if it turned out to be the right target. "What is your father's name?"

"What?" the sixteen year old asked, turning his head slightly as he wondered what it had to do about anything. "Did something happen to him?"

"What is his name?" the terminator asked again, elevating its volume by five percent. Humans tended to be responsive to both repetition and increased loudness of voice it knew. "What is your father's name?"

"Joe. Joseph," Tim said, fidgeting in his chair as he got increasingly anxious. "What is this about? What happened to my dad?"

"Where does he work?" The terminator ignored the question that the boy had asked, concentrating on establishing the identity. Skynet had had scant information on the person in question, the computer networks that would have aided in identification having long since been destroyed by the time it had sent back this particular unit.

"Calax. He's only been there for a few months. We just moved here," Tim said, starting to get annoyed as well as worried. He ran a hand through his wavy brown hair, and blew out in frustration. "What happened?"

"Nothing." The terminator turned to leave, turning its head as it moved towards the exit. "Thank you for your cooperation."

xxx

Buffy walked down the hall lost in her own thoughts at what had transpired the night before. She had found Faith to be annoying and unwelcome before, but now she had something of a legitimate justification for the feelings. Faith had just gone off on that one vampire, in ways that weren't just explained away by love of the fight.

"Excuse me," she said, drawn out of her thoughts as a tall man in a suit brushed her aside as it exited the school office. Buffy turned and watched him, shaking her head her head as the man said nothing and continued towards the exit as if nothing had happened.

She turned and headed back to her original destination, forgetting about the odd and very rude man. She needed to talk to Giles as soon as possible. Both about Faith and about the name that she had learned about during the night's patrol.

xxx

Xander waited for the bank attendant to bring him his safety deposit box. It had taken a couple of hours, but he had wanted to make a report before going further, just in case something were to happen to him.

The bank in particular had been chosen because the vault that housed the safety deposit boxes was known to be intact by the time it was discovered by the Resistance in the future. John Connor had picked it as a place to keep all intelligence that they had found, a sort of time capsule so that he could learn the things that they had learned in the past.

Xander idly wondered if there were any other reports in the vault, besides Boykins' of course. The key to defeating Skynet may even be in one of the safety deposit boxes already, waiting to be read for another quarter century.

"You can use the room at the end of the hall to your left." The bank attendant placed the large metal deposit box on the counter. She wondered what was inside, as she did every time she had to get one for one of the bank's clients, but she had never been tempted to try to figure out what was in any of them. The bank prided itself on its discretion.

"Thanks." Xander picked up the box and carried it to the room that had been mentioned, placing it on the desk that extended out of the far wall. He closed the door and locked it, pulling off the messenger bag that he had had slung over his shoulder and placing it beside the safety deposit box.

Pulling out the chair and sitting down in front of the table, Xander took out the key to the box and unlocked it, flipping it open. Inside was a large three-ring binder with a few pages already inside. Xander took it out and pushed the box to his left. Opening up the bag that he had brought, Xander pulled out a blue folder, flipping it open as well.

He transferred some papers from the folder to the binder, notes about what he and Burke had learned so far in their time in the past. He had included a couple of pictures as well, so that the Resistance in the future would know what the Frakes looked like in the past. He had nothing definite yet, but if he was to fail, his compatriots would be given a head start on how to defeat Skynet in the past. Connor might even decide to send another team back in time to work off of them, working his way closer to an optimal future for humanity.

One could only hope. Even if it was a fool's hope.

xxx

"Every hour it gets closer to J-Day and we're going on nothing," Xander said, bending down and pouring some dry dog food into the bright red plastic bowl that lay on the tiled floor of the kitchen. He had no sooner finished pouring than the dog came running in, skidding slightly on the tile as it came to a stop in front of its bowl. The little dog started to dig into its food, crunching on the dried food noisily. "I guess you have more important things to worry about don't you, boy."

Xander placed the bag back into the lower shelf and scratched the terrier's head a few times before walking into the main room. Burke was seated on a couch in the center, working on the laptop. "Find anything?"

"Not about ways to crack Calax security. However, I did manage to find a purchase order from Calax to a Los Angeles based raw material vendor," Burke said, looking up at Xander as he walked into the room. "They placed an order three weeks ago for five pounds of refined columbite-tantalite. Delivery's supposed to take place tomorrow."

Xander narrowed his eyes as he recognized the metallic ore. "Coltan. Do you know what it's going to be used for?"

Burke shrugged. He was no expert on electronics manufacturing after all. He was better at taking them apart. "It's used for a lot of stuff. But for this small of a quantity, I'm guessing high performance capacitors. The purchase order number is linked to a joint Calax-Cyberdyne research program. Codenamed Falcon. I don't know what that is though. The actual details are buried under so many layers of security, that I'd need a real hacker to actually get any real data on it."

Xander frowned, whatever it was it didn't sound promising. Ironically that was how most of the projects got started. Because some scientist thought that it would be a promising avenue of research to pursue. But, nothing that Cyberdyne did ended up that way.

"Luckily, Tetsuo Corporation, the vendor, has a local warehouse here where they ship stuff out of. They must do a lot of business with Calax and other businesses near here." Burke managed a small grin. "And they have much much less security than CRD does."

xxx

Night had fallen hours ago, the loading and receiving personnel having gone home some time before. All that was left was a minimal security patrol, even less than what was assigned to other warehouses in safer areas because of the unique situation in Sunnydale. It was a benefit since it meant that the time between patrol sweeps was a lot longer than it might have otherwise been. The security was probably even laxer since the guard would not be particularly inclined to wander around at night, especially amongst the dark alleyways between warehouses.

There was no sound except for nearly silent clipping as Xander made two cuts through the chain-link fence surrounding the warehouse. It did not take very long, and they had timed it specifically so that they would have the maximum time to get in and out without being noticed.

After he had finished, Xander pulled on the loose end of the metal fence, Burke taking a hold and pulling it back. Xander placed the wire cutters back into the bag that he had brought, and slipped the bag through the hole. He followed behind it, making sure that his clothes did not snag. Moving to the side and staying in a crouch, Xander slung the bag over his shoulder as he looked around. After making sure that it was clear, Xander stood, reaching the fingers of both hands through the fence and gripping the freed section that Burke was holding. "Okay, I got it."

Burke nodded and let go, making sure that the fence wouldn't snap back into place. He crouched down as he took off the backpack he was wearing and pushed it through the hole. He crawled on his belly through the small hole as well, standing up as he cleared the fence. "We have twelve minutes."

Xander nodded and let the fence go, making sure that he had a hand in the hole to catch it so that it did not make a sound as it came to a stop. "Let's go."

The pair of them moved in the shadows, avoiding the lights that had been placed to illuminate the empty yard of the warehouse. They managed to make their way to the employee entrance of the facility, a regular-sized fire door with an electronic lock at one side.

Xander looked at it, and reached inside his bag for a small screwdriver. Placing it underneath the faceplate, Xander pried it off, exposing the circuit board and wires that made up the guts of the control mechanism for the lock. He unscrewed the circuit board carefully, and let it hang freely. Placing the screwdriver back inside his bag, he pulled out a small minicomputer with two small leads attached to alligator clips.

Burke kept an eye out in case the guard decided to change his routine, but also checked out what Xander was doing. The human was working quickly, and rummaged through the mess of wires and components to clip the leads onto the right wires. He didn't worry about security cameras, having scoped the place out previously and noting the lack of exterior cameras. However, Xander was wearing a mask just in case there was a passive system in place on the inside recording what happened in the interior. He didn't bother, anybody catching his him on video would assume that his natural appearance was a disguise.

"C'mon," Xander said, as he activated the computer, a series of pulses sent through the leads to force the lock into diagnostic mode. It took a few seconds and the door was unlocked as the electronic test sent it to its default mode and ran it through an infinite loop. Xander opened it carefully, sticking his foot in between the jamb and the door so that it wouldn't close and lock. "We're in."

Xander removed the computer and placed it back into his bag as he hung the faceplate back onto the guts of the locking mechanism. It wouldn't work anymore, but it would not be noticeable from a distance. He moved inside, Burke following him through as he took one last look around the yard for the guard.

The security lights inside illuminated the warehouse, enough so that they didn't need to use flashlights or night vision goggles. The small windows set in a row near the top of the walls of the facility let in additional light from the stars and moon, helping to intensify the light in some areas.

Xander walked through the rows, looking for the right section according to the purchase order that Burke had called up. There were rows of tall shelves, each holding bins or parts as well as special orders for the company's customers. One area near the loading docks housed long tables surrounded by cartons full of flat boxes. In the day, there would be a number of people busy sorting and loading parts for delivery.

"Over here," Burke said, finding the right one and beckoning to Xander. He walked down the row, looking at laminated cards that designated which shelf was which. In the middle was the one for the local Calax facility, and mixed amongst various orders in preparation was the special order they were looking for.

Xander picked up the box with a gloved hand, the shipping label still on it and identifying that it came from Brazil. The box feeling heavier than the size of it conveyed. It made sense given the dense nature of refined coltan. Taking a knife from his belt, he cut through the packaging tape and opened the lid up, making sure that the right contents were inside. Ingots of grey metal revealed themselves to him. "It's the right one."

Turning, Xander placed the box into his bag and looked around the neighboring shelves for other small packages. "C'mon, let's grab a few more and get out of here."

Burke nodded and unslung his backpack, opening it up. There was nothing inside, but he was rectifying it now. He took boxes at random with Xander adding some as they made their way towards the exit. They made sure that they didn't only take from the shelves closest to the Calax one. All the more to cover their target and make it seem like nothing more than a random robbery. From what Xander had told him, the local police department was not particularly good at solving crimes. All the better for them.

They made their way out the door quickly and headed back to the hole they had cut into the fence. Xander checked his watch as they moved, stopping against a red colored delivery van with the company name printed on the side. They had three minutes left, and he hurried on, unslinging his bag as he neared the cut section of the fence.

Burke pushed the top of it open, letting Xander go through it first. He watched as Xander stood and pulled the section up and moved through the gap himself. They headed back to the van they had parked around the corner, the lack of alarms or shouting informing them that they had made their exit cleanly.

Things were finally looking up for them.

xxx

"That it then?" Xander pulled his balaclava up to his forehead, turning it into a watch cap as he loaded his gear into the rear of the van.

"Yeah," Burke climbed into the back of the van, taking off his heavy backpack. He looked through to the front, watching through the windshield to make sure that there was nobody out there to see them depart. Maybe he was being overly cautious, but nobody had died because of it.

Xander closed the rear doors, stepping around to the driver's seat. He stopped about halfway there as he saw two figures that he recognized crash into a warehouse down the street. They were quickly followed by a number of others, their fangs and yellow eyes revealing that they were vampires. "The hell?"

Burke had seen them too, exiting out of rear of the van. He stopped up short as Xander turned the corner to the back of the van as well. "What are you planning on doing?"

"Something stupid," Xander said grimly, pulling out a long duffle bag. He unzipped it and pulled out a couple of stakes, sticking one between his belt and his pants. He pulled out a shotgun as well. It had been cut down, making it more effective in close quarters. Although it did cut down on range, it wouldn't be so much of a problem here. He pulled down his mask as well, making sure that it didn't hinder his peripheral vision.

"Our orders-" Burke tried to get out.

Xander spun his head up to look the demon in the eye. "I can't just let them die. I can't just…I know our orders, but we can't just sit by and do nothing."

"Right, let's go," Burke said, reaching into the bag and picking up a large hunting knife. He took it out of its sheath and examined its sharp edge. They weren't exactly well-prepared to take on a legion of vampires, but it would have to do.

xxx

"You go for Buffy, I'll take the other," Xander whispered, going forward through rows of crates as Burke split off towards the blonde Slayer. He figured that the brunette was also a Slayer, the one called after Kendra, but he couldn't be sure. It had been months, and he knew that there had to be changes, even if it wasn't obvious. A part of him was still tempted to go back to the school, now that it was standing again, though he knew that it would be a mistake.

Burke nodded and turned, taking off towards Xander's friend as he noted that she was being attacked by multiple vampires. From the looks of it, she wasn't that bad, though hardly well-trained and more reliant on her innate strength and durability than skill.

Xander moved forward carefully, inching his way forward as stealthily as possible. He looked on as an odd looking vampire with cloven hooves for hands battered the brunette girl. Gritting his teeth beneath his mask, Xander tried to angle for a clear shot. He watched as she took a particularly hard impact to the chest which sent her flying to the ground, skidding towards him.

Taking the opportunity, Xander stepped forward and fired his shotgun. He knew well enough that it wouldn't kill the demon, but he could still do quite a bit of damage with the weapon. The large slug took the ancient vampire in the kneecap, utterly destroying the joint and bringing the giant vampire to its knees, or rather knee and bloody mess of bone and cartilage.

Faith looked behind her in shock at Kakistos slumping forward screaming, watching as a masked man pumped a shotgun and opened fire again. She turned her eyes forward in time to see Kakistos get struck in the right arm, the impact of the shotgun blast actually blowing the ancient vampire's arm clean off at mid-bicep.

Xander fired again and again, taking more and more chunks out of the vampire. The initial damage to the leg meant that it could not utilize its speed to avoid his fire. The vampire roared in pain as it was continuously struck. While the damage could not kill it, its increased healing factor would not regenerate the tissue quickly enough to do it any good.

Stepping forward closer to the vampire that was now laying on its back, Xander pointed the weapon at its neck and pulled the trigger. The slug ripped through the vampire's neck, utterly destroying its cervical spine, and turning the demonically animated corpse into dust.

"No!" a female vampire shouted as it leapt at him, scrambling onto the human's back. It scratched at the man that had killed her sire, ripping the mask from his head.

Xander flipped the vampire over his shoulder, slamming her as hard as he could onto the concrete floor. He tried to bring the shotgun into play, but the blonde vampire had regained her feet too quickly and batted it out of his hands. He elbowed her in the face in response, backing up to pull his stake out as it went reeling back.

"I'm going to kill you!" the vampire shouted, angling to leap forward again. Her leap was cut forth as a piece of wood jutted out of its chest. She was able to look down at it in surprise before turning into dust.

Xander just looked on as the dust settled, revealing that the brunette he had saved was the one to dispatch the vampire. She looked to be about eighteen or so, with slightly longer than shoulder length wavy hair and good looks in the rebellious dropout sort of way.

"Who are you?" Faith asked, recognizing the figure. Sort of. He looked like an older version of the boy in the photograph that Buffy had, but they had all been the same age in the photo, so it couldn't have been him.

Xander said nothing, walking over and picking up his mask and shotgun, disguising his appearance once again as he pulled the balaclava over his head. He turned towards the other sounds of battle, though he could tell who was winning.

xxx

Buffy had turned towards the sound of the gun firing, the momentary distraction giving one of the vampires the chance to clock her with a crowbar. The hard blow had sent her flying into a metal support beam which made it hard for her to get back up. She looked up, eyes wide as the black vampire in an odd suit approached her. She wished once again that she had brought Angel along to confront the other Slayer. She had thought that Faith would be more responsive if she was on her own though, which didn't help them much at the current moment.

The thought flew out of her head as she became even more shocked as a giant of a demon approached and grabbed the main vampire by the head. It certainly looked malevolent with wicked horns and fangs and claws. A quick swing of an arm, and its knife cut clean through the vampire's neck, turning the vampire into dust. "What are you?"

It was all she could make out. The demon was a conundrum. It was wearing oddly human clothes and had just killed a vampire which had just been about to kill her. Of course, it could have dusted the vampire to save her for itself. That was not a comforting thought.

The demon said nothing, instead turning and facing the other vampires that now were trying to attack him instead of the Slayer. He snarled contemptuously as they came at him. Ducking and weaving his way through, he used his claws and the knife to batter and beat the vampires, his experience fighting enemies much stronger and tougher than any demon making this seem like child's play. It was not long before they had all been defeated and turned to dust beneath his boots.

Burke looked on as the Slayer got to her feet, arms and fists raised as if she expected him to attack her. He bared his teeth in amusement. "I'm not impressed. Be glad that I'm here to save you. Not to kill you, Slayer."

Buffy watched on as the demon walked back the way that it had come, seemingly in contempt, not knowing exactly what to do.

xxx

"You a Slayer?" Xander asked, noticing that Burke was already heading towards the exit. He turned his attention back to the girl. It made sense, after all she had taken quite a few hits from the vampire and was still walking around. Good enough to take out a vampire not a minute later even.

The girl nodded, regaining the tough exterior that she had lost when she had first seen Kakistos back at the motel. She guessed she couldn't stay there anymore. "I'm Faith. Who are you?"

Xander just looked at her, keeping his expression passive. "You should be more careful."

He started off, headed towards the exit as well, but turned as he heard Faith follow after him. He raised the shotgun at her, more of a warning than in actual intent. He wanted to get out of there before Buffy came looking. She would probably be able to recognize his voice.

"Whoa there cowboy," Faith said, raising her hands in mock surrender. She smiled a little, in gratitude with a little bit of sultry mixed in. No man she had ever met had been able to resist it. "I just want to know who you are."

He was pretty cute, in a slightly older sort of way, but strong, and with oddly tired eyes. And he definitely knew what was happening in Sunnydale, and how to handle himself. She imagined it was like Angel with Buffy, although she didn't peg the man as being a vampire.

"Are you Xander's brother or something?" Faith asked, wondering why the man was being so skittish. Especially since he had just swooped in and saved the day, proverbially speaking. Usually it was expected that the hero got a little something.

Xander smiled briefly, not altogether surprised at being identified, even if incorrectly. She was hanging out with Buffy after all. "Not quite. Try to be more careful next time."

He backed up and out the door, making sure that Faith didn't follow him.

xxx

"Hunh," Faith said, still looking at the doorway through which the man had left while wielding his. From what Buffy had just said, he had been accompanied by a large demon which had defeated the vampires in a most impressive display. That had never happened before in her, admittedly short, experience as a Slayer.

"Let's go home," Buffy said, looking around at the debris of the fight that had just happened. A few spent shotgun shells dotted the area where Faith had fought Kakistos, but there was no evidence of anything specifically supernatural.

They headed towards the exit themselves, Faith glancing over at the other Slayer before speaking, "so does your friend Xander have an older brother?"

That caused Buffy to stop short. She turned and stared at the other Slayer. She didn't know if it was more of Faith's antics, but it was still a sore subject and she was in no mood for it. There was some brittle anger in her voice as she spoke, "what are you talking about?"

"That guy," Faith said, pointing back to the front of the warehouse with a thumb. "He looked just like the guy in the picture you had. Only older."

"That's impossible," Buffy said, shaking her head. She turned a little pale though. "Xander's an only child."

It couldn't be. If he had come back, she couldn't think why he wouldn't have come to them. And why he would look different enough to be thought of as his own older brother. Faith had to be mistaken. She had to be.

xxx

"Well, that was a delightful mess," Burke said, wiping his blade off with a rag. He looked towards the man in the driver's seat.

Burke knew that Xander had made the right call, if the intention was to save lives. But, that was their mission only in the larger scheme of things. It wasn't like Xander hadn't ordered men to their certain deaths. It came with the territory. As it did with the Slayer's. Things had worked out. This time. "Did you save the girl?"

Xander looked in the rearview mirror at the demon as he started the car. It was going to be there, not exactly between them, but the open wound would still be there for quite a while. He knew that he had been lucky that it had worked out. "Yeah. This time."


	4. Chapter Three: Tech Noir

**Chapter 3: Tech Noir**

August 31, 1998

"Where could he have gone?" Buffy nearly shouted as she paced back and forth in the front room of Giles' apartment. She had somewhat reluctantly finished her patrol before heading over, though mainly in order to try to see if she could track down whomever Faith had met. With little luck, her only other option was to see her Watcher, who had not been so pleased to see either Slayer so early in the morning.

Giles just sat in his robe on the couch, turning his head back and forth as Buffy walked and vented. The sudden possible return of the boy was enough to get his attention, although he was hardly at full capacity so late in the night, or early in the morning for that matter. "I have no idea. All of the research that I've done indicates that, at best, he would have been sucked into some hell dimension. There's scant information really."

"So what, he broke out or something?" Faith put in, a smile on her face. She leaned back into the plush club chair that she was slouched in. While Kakistos had unnerved her, she knew that it didn't do to dwell on the past. "Color me even more impressed."

"Why would he look older?" Buffy asked, stopping and turning to stare at her Watcher in search of answers. She was torn. While she wanted her old friend back, she didn't quite believe that he was and he was so different, and so it might very well be some imposter.

Giles considered the question, thinking about it intently. "Time does not work the same in all dimensions. That could account for the difference in age. It would narrow down the dimensions he could have ended up in I suppose, but we don't know all that are out there. Still, the chances…"

It wasn't exactly grasping at straws, although the probability that it actually was Xander was extremely low. Hell dimensions were notorious for their danger, and while Xander had proven himself capable of surviving more than the average person, as well as take more damage, there was little chance he would have been able to survive a hell dimension for as long as Faith had described. There were other possibilities with greater likelihood; it was not like shapeshifters were unknown to the Watchers' Council after all.

"And why wouldn't he come to-" Buffy started to say exasperatedly.

"There is the possibility that it is not Xander," Giles interrupted as delicately as possible, not wanting Buffy to get her hopes up too much. While she did know about the places he could have ended up in in a general sense, he had sugarcoated how bad most of them really were. "We do not know enough to speculate, and even though I, loathe to admit it, want it to be him, we need to consider how unlikely it is, and prepare for that possibility."

"So what do we do now?" Faith asked, curious about this mysterious presence in their lives. He had to have been something significant in the past to have such an effect on Buffy and the Watcher.

"Be careful on your patrols. I know you'll try to find him with or without my approval, but be wary. He may not be what he seems," Giles warned, looking at the both of them with concern on his face. "I'll do what I can to find a way to track his whereabouts here, but…"

"But what," Buffy asked, starting to calm down now that they had a plan of action. Even if it didn't provide all the answers she wanted.

Giles took a deep breath and held it for a few moments. "If it is him, we have no idea what he has been through. He may have a reason for not coming to us. He could be dangerous. To us."

Buffy wilted at the thought.

xxx

He had gone home the night before fairly happy. His team had made some significant progress on the programming for the tracking system that they had been tasked to work on for the last couple of months. Joseph Frakes was not sure about all that the project entailed, but he could make some guesses based on the specifications and requirements that they had been given by his technical superiors at Cyberdyne, not to mention the hardware that they had been issued for testing purposes.

His son had told him that an FBI agent had visited him at his school, and while he had been perturbed by that, there was no harm done. It was probably related to the project that he was working on for the defense department. He had dealt with high security before on government contracts, but the secrecy for this project was on a whole other level.

The computer scientist believed that the project, which was split up amongst different subsidiaries and divisions across the joint venture, was to build a next generation unmanned combat aerial vehicle. Something that would surpass the abilities of the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator. A UCAV that was not just more maneuverable, better armed, and better armored than the Predator, but with a paradigm shift in command and control. The director of Cyberdyne had decided to use the Falcon as a test-bed for an artificial intelligence system that was capable of more than simple execution of pre-programmed flight and evasion processes, but actual on-the-fly multi-variable decision-making.

To date, Frakes had never figured out where the base system had come from, the parts he had access to being far beyond anything he had ever heard about, let alone seen. But, that was not his objective. The neural net processor had been in development for years and multiple revisions, and the main trick was to write the programming that would run on it as well as design the modules that would gather and compile the data for analysis by the neural net.

"It's all gone," Frakes said, distinctly less happy than he had been the night before. He ran a hand through his thinning hair. He kept his calm though. As the head of research, he felt that it was much better for the creative process if he did not overly micro-manage those under him or be too overly emotional. Part of that meant not losing his temper.

"Yeah," Carl said, nodding his head from his seat in the director's office. He was in charge of procurement, and the call that he had received early that morning had not made him happy. Delays were a part of the process he knew, but this was something else. Something else entirely. "All five pounds of it. There were other things missing too from us."

"How quickly can we replace the coltan?" Frakes asked, mentally going over the timetable and how the delay would affect it. He had deadlines to live up to after all. "And whatever else is missing?"

Carl shook his head, wincing slightly. He had run it through the ERP system as well as got in touch with the brokers that he knew. "The good news is that most of it can be replaced pretty quickly. A lot of it is just off the shelf parts. But, the coltan is another matter entirely."

"How long will it take?" Frakes asked again, sighing. He knew that the metal was highly in demand as well as hard to come by, and that refined coltan to the level that they needed was another step up in difficulty to obtain or even manufacture for that matter. It required highly pure ore, which was much much harder to find than the already rare coltan was.

"Two months," Carl said, shrugging because there was nothing that he could do. Not even the brokers he knew could expedite an order, no matter the price. "We got lucky last time, but refined coltan is a lengthy process. I've already put in an order, but..."

"Same vendor?" Frakes asked.

Carl shrugged again. "There's nobody else near here that can refine to the level that Tetsuo can. It's the best we can do. But, the police are investigating, and I've been talking to them to make sure that security will be tightened for our next orders. They promise that it'll be delivered as promised this time. In two months."

"I suppose that's something at least," Frakes said in resignation. He was still going through the now revised timeline, and it didn't look so good. He supposed that more time in the simulations would be helpful and it gave him more time to optimize the programming subroutines, but his higher-ups at Calax and Cyberdyne would not be pleased by this stumble. The Department of Defense tended not to like delays just as they did cost overruns. "I guess that's it. Let me know if anything changes."

Carl nodded and stood up, ready to leave.

"Thanks Carl," Frakes said, turning to his computer to send an e-mail to his bosses to inform them of the new situation.

xxx

Detective Henley stood with his hands on his hips as the forensics teams finished up their work. He had already determined a rough timeline for the crime, and as loathe as he was to admit it, he was pretty impressed by the capability of the thief or thieves.

The fence had been cut, the door lock had been broken into which had disabled the alarm system, and material had been stolen. All of it had been done in less than fifteen minutes, with the security guard none the wiser.

He stroked his thick mustache before waving over to one of the uniformed officers that was standing by to assist him. It was a young officer that he had not had the chance to get to know, although given the turnover in the Sunnydale PD, it probably wasn't all that necessary. Henley looked at him, memorizing his face in case he'd have to talk to him again. "Anything, Officer Ramirez?"

"The security guard reported hearing what could have been shots somewhere in the area, probably near the time of the robbery," the officer said, looking at the notes that he had hastily copied down in his notebook. "It could be related."

"Okay," Henley said, walking to the cut chain-link fence and looking in either direction. The uniformed officer still stood in the yard behind him. Considering, the detective turned around. "Get some guys and canvass the area. Three block radius from here. If there was gunfire, I want to see it."

The uniformed officer nodded and turned around, walking back to the center of the crime scene and looking for more officers to help with the search.

Henley just continued to look out into the street. While robberies certainly did happen in the town, his twenty years on the force told him that they didn't happen like that. Robberies in the middle of the night, while common in other cities, were not so much the norm in Sunnydale. He got the feeling that there was something more than a simple robbery going on.

xxx

"They placed another order for coltan," Burke said, turning around from his computer and looking out into the front room of their apartment. He had hacked back into the Calax computer network and had easily noticed the new purchase order. The estimated time of delivery gave them some time to play with, but it still meant that the project was going forward. "So exactly what's the plan here? Keep stealing the coltan and hope they get tired and end the project?"

"No. I knew it'd only delay the project, but it does buy us some time." Xander undid the screw at the barrel end of the shotgun, removing it and setting it on the coffee table that he was sitting in front of. He punched out the trigger housing pin and began to disassemble the receiver. "They may start paying more attention to the other parts for this project too. If we can figure out what they're using to build the thing, then we can figure out what it might be."

"And until then?" Burke asked, wondering exactly what else they had.

Xander removed the bolt from the shotgun that he was holding, getting ready to clean the individual parts. He needed to pay special attention to the barrel, given the ammunition that he had been using the night before he wanted to make sure that the barrel hadn't been worn too much. "Keep an eye on Frakes. See what else Calax and Cyberdyne are working on."

"And what about your friends?" Burke frowned, the tips of his fangs barely visible. He didn't have a problem with the Slayer seeing him. After all, to most humans he looked just like the rest of his species as rare as they were. There was no way that the Slayer could know by sight which one of his people he was. One of the benefits of looking so dissimilar to humans he supposed.

"Hide. Evade." Xander turned to look at his partner. "It's what we're good at after all."

Burke just scoffed, rolling his eyes. "You've never been good at keeping your head down."

xxx

May 16, 2023

They were all crowded around the old table, dim light centered on its stained and cracked surface as the Resistance fighters took in what was on it. They had moved in only a couple of months before, carving out something that was somewhat livable and could be defended if the Skynet machines discovered them and tried to attack.

As it was, the rumbling of T-1's as they patrolled, which could just be felt even down there, reminded them how close Skynet really was to their position.

"We've received word that Skynet's in the process of repairing a power station in Hawthorne," Connor said, looking around at the men and women in the room. They were some of his best, and all had earned their places at the table. They all looked dirty and tired, so very tired. But, it was the job, the mission. It was the life that they all led now. And they all looked to him for guidance.

It was a job that his mother had prepared him for before he was even born.

John Connor jabbed at a point on an old map that had been scribbled on multiple times. "Olsen wants us to hit it, bad enough so that they can't use it and won't want to bother to repair it. If we can do that, then we shut down the production facility they've been building in Gardena."

"There's no cover," Barnes said, dragging a finger around the map in what would be a quarter mile area all the way around. He was from near that area, and had seen most of it go down before he was able to get out post J-Day. "That area's all been flattened."

"Air strike's out," Blair Williams stated, folding her arms across her chest. She was one of the few pilots they had left, her beauty standing out despite the sweat and grime. Her main ride was an A-10 Warthog, and while old, it was still a match against the aerial HK's that Skynet deployed to patrol the skies. Of course, that didn't take into account numbers nor that they were starting to get outfitted with similar plasma weapons to the ones that the ogre tanks had started to carry en masse. "There's a small staging facility near there, not to mention that they've probably got anti-air defenses set up all over the place. With no buildings for cover, we'd get blown out of the sky before we got within missile range."

Xander said nothing as he switched between examining the map and glancing at the pretty pilot. He wasn't exactly sure where she hailed from, at least ethnically, vaguely Asian features mixing with her European ancestry. She'd been part of one of the fledging defense groups before the Resistance had truly formed. Probably one of their most valuable members too.

Looking at the map more closely, a plan of sorts came to his mind. It was audacious, but Connor inspired that in people. Even if he wasn't in total command of the global Resistance. In fact, he knew that some of the higher-ups disliked the reputation that Connor had gotten, especially with the local cells. It didn't do for one man to have such sway, especially in a world where the rules had stopped applying.

"There's sewer and drainage tunnels all throughout that area." Xander stepped forward and pointed with a dirty gloved hand towards an area near Compton. "The patrols don't go out that far for the most part, and a team can get dropped by helicopter, make their way through the tunnels, and blow the facility. Under the noses of the tin men."

Blair looked at the ground pounder and frowned. He was too much like Barnes in his recklessness, despite how good he may be.

Connor shook his head. "Two squads have been wiped out trying to secure that area. There's hydrobots and T-600's swarming all over, and there are rumors that there's some kind of smaller HK defending the drainage tunnels too."

Xander shook his head, disagreeing with the assessment. He looked at the map again and the route that would be needed, thinking again about how important the target was strategically. A power station was a major asset, and the fact that they wouldn't be able to bring a production facility on-line would mean a month or more setback for Skynet. "They weren't me and my team. Drop us in. We can carry a lot heavier weapons than the other squads with a lot less people."

He brought his head up, looking John Connor in the eye. "We can do it, sir."

John just nodded.

xxx

"Who's going with you?" Blair said, stepping into the armory. She leaned against the open heavy metal door and watched as Xander filled up a backpack with ammunition and supplies. A satchel, presumably loaded with C4 lay beside him on the concrete floor.

Xander shoved a cut down shotgun through the straps of the backpack, tightening the straps and checking to make sure that it was secure. He turned around, unsurprised by the glare that was being sent his way. "Burke, Clore, Vik'nik, Terry, and Thoroop."

"And you trust them," Blair went on, still unhappy with how things had gone in the mission briefing. She would fly escort for the helicopter that would drop them as close as possible to the insertion point. They'd then infiltrate the tunnels and travel miles until they reached the power facility. If they were still alive, they'd set off charges within the plant to damage it beyond repair. Then they'd have to exfiltrate miles back to the rendezvous point for pickup.

Xander shrugged, looking at the woman carefully. "We've done this sort of thing before. I can trust them to watch my back."

"It's still risky," Blair grumbled, though she wasn't exactly sure what part of the plan she had the biggest problem with.

Xander just smiled at her mild complaint. "If I didn't know better, I'd begin to think that you're worried about me, Hickabick."

"I wouldn't want to have to rescue your ass." Blair rolled her eyes. "Waste of fuel."

Xander turned serious for a moment, checking his watch. "You've got preflight. And, I'll be fine. I always am. I'll see you out there."

Blair turned to leave, stepping through the doorway and turning her head to look back at him. "Watch your back."

xxx

August 31, 1998

The terminator turned its head minutely in mimicry of concern or interest. In the course of its investigation it had expanded its search parameters to gather data on Joseph Frakes. What it had just learned had played into a secondary objective that had been placed in all Skynet units sent back in time. It knew that the human Resistance had sent soldiers back in time, some to protect subjects that Skynet had targeted for termination, and some that were attempting to stop Skynet from being created at all. Thus, it fell upon them to ensure that Skynet would be built as long as it did not compromise their primary objectives.

According to local police reports as well as Calax data files, coltan had been stolen from one of Calax's vendors. The terminator did not know whether or not it was specifically linked to Skynet related projects as other components had also been stolen from multiple companies, but it made a note to investigate further.

In the meantime, the primary objective took precedence over the terminator's other mission parameters. It would have to ensure that Timothy Frakes died, though in a way that was much more subtle than the usual process for terminators.

xxx

The music was louder than he would have liked. The thrumming bass reminded him of the rumble of tank treads as the ogres did their sweeps of the ruins. It was not something easily forgotten, and it was now hard to hear if anybody was sneaking up. Of course, it did have its good points. The Bronze was playing something with a beat, and there was a good crowd in there, helping keep any particular person from standing out.

Xander took a sip of his drink, glancing out over the crowd. It was hard to keep track of someone, especially when they were on the dance floor though. Evidently Frakes' son was no wallflower and with his good looks was attracting a good amount of attention. He made sure to keep in the shadows though, as some of those looking on were known to him. Days had passed since he had run into the second Slayer, and he was still a light antsy about that. But, he had managed to avoid people that knew him so far.

Cordelia was there, as were a number of other cheerleaders. She had evidently gotten over him, which he really didn't blame her for. They had been dating, but it was a high school thing. No telling how long those were supposed to last. Besides, as far as she knew, he was dead. More than that, he had moved on, though he had had much longer to do it in.

He knew that Burke was watching over the elder Frakes, who had taken to working late at the office to make up for the parts orders that had been pushed back. The demon would have an easier time of keeping watch over there, in the alleys, than in a crowded club for sub-twenty one year olds.

The demon had managed to dig up some more information on the Frakes family too. His son Timothy's transfer explained why he hadn't recognized the son. The fact that he was following in his father's footsteps by being the president of his last school's computer club didn't give him much hope. Fast-forward ten years, and there was no telling exactly where the hobby would end up. Of course, as far as Xander knew, the important one was Joseph.

It was grasping at straws really. There was nothing specific to point towards Tim as being significant to the future, but they didn't have much else to do. Until they could figure out what the Calax project was, or a way to break into the facility, they were left with little to work on. It gave him an excuse to get out of the apartment at any rate.

Noting that Tim had finished dancing and was heading out the door, Xander downed his coke and tossed enough bills onto the counter of the bar to cover his tap. He trailed about thirty or forty feet back, not wanting to be noticed by Tim nor people that might be able to recognize him.

Xander had to weave through a couple of crowds, ducking his head at one point to avoid seeing Oz. He hoped that the mix of people in the club would hide his presence from the werewolf's senses. He had no idea where Willow was, but it was probably for the best that she wasn't around either. Moving forward as quickly as he could, he watched as Tim moved out the door, a group of friends going with him.

Xander stayed in the shadows as much as possible as he trailed the group. It wasn't difficult as the city planners had skimped on the number of lights that lined the street. He wasn't sure exactly where Tim had parked, but it hadn't been in the main lot. He was a little wary, given that Tim still had a group with him, but he had honed his tracking skills. It paid to be able move quickly and stealthily. Especially when one was being hunted.

xxx

May 17, 2023

Xander didn't bother looking back as the Black Hawk started back towards the closest base. The A-10's that were escorting them, including Blair's were also heading back towards the Ladera Heights airstrip. They would refuel at the base they had amidst the oil derricks and wait until they needed exfiltration. If they managed to stay alive that long.

Moving quickly to cover, Xander found the building that they were looking for. Scout teams had managed to map out a good section of where they currently were, at least on the surface. It was mostly empty in the general vicinity, with routing flights and patrols to keep Skynet from pressing too hard for an area with little strategic value. That was further north, where a lot of their heavy weaponry in the LA area was. Ladera Heights, the site of a hard-pressed battle in the early days of the war, and an oil field that provided much of their supply of crude. Without oil, their birds weren't fly, and they couldn't make any fuel for their other vehicles. It wasn't like they had access to the micro-fusion reactors that Skynet had come up with for use in their HK-tanks.

The building was mostly blown through, just enough of the walls and ceiling to hide them from easy view. It seemed to have been an old storefront in the past, though it merely provided a covered place to conduct their operations in secret. Off to the corner was a bolted down manhole cover, which Xander proceeded to remove. He shined a light down there to make sure that it was clear before heading down.

He was sweating already, nervous as he descended the rickety and rusted ladder that led to the drainage tunnel. It was the most vulnerable position to be in, and he couldn't be sure that some machine wouldn't come at him from behind when he couldn't fight back.

It did not take long to get to the bottom, Xander stepping down into fetid water as he brought up his rifle to sweep the tunnel. The light attached to the rail on the weapon's barrel revealed nothing more than mold and dripping moisture that added to the knee height water that was at the bottom of the large corridor. He turned around to check in the other direction, the rest of his team waiting above, but heard on the splashing of his movement.

Looking up, Xander raised a thumbs up at the floating heads above him. The demons were backlit from the dying sun that filtered in through the hole in the ground above. They started down as well, most of them having to shift their equipment so as to not get caught up in the narrow passageway down.

Xander waited at the bottom for them to arrive, all the while straining his eyes and ears for any sign that Skynet had noticed their position and was moving to intercept. Skynet used a specially designed robot to patrol the tunnels and sewers that they hadn't managed to secure or cordon off. The hydrobots were long eel-like machines, with razor sharp claws and some kind of triple drill head at one end. They were wicked fast in the water and could sneak up on a man and leap up from the water to drill through his chest without warning. He had seen the wounds before. If the blow didn't kill them directly, infection usually did.

"We're ready," Burke said quietly from behind, lifting up his Milkor multiple grenade launcher. He had a number of reloads in his pack as well as strapped in loops all over his large body. The specially designed grenades had been designed to breach the hyperalloy metal of the terminators and some of the smaller Skynet units and then detonate. A good strike was capable of destroying a triple eight in one shot. Of course, the terminators didn't tend to stay in one place.

Xander glanced behind and nodded, looking at all of his men in turn. They had all earned the right to be there, the same as he had, and all knew exactly what they were getting themselves into.

Burke had been the first to join up, bringing much of his people over from the Hellmouth. Larger than a human and far stronger, he wasn't slowed down by the heavy load of grenades he was carrying. To his side was Clore, who was almost as large. He was carrying a shortened M249 as easily as a child would a water gun. His large eyes took in much more than a human's, and in multiple spectrums, and Xander knew that the darkness of the tunnel was as light as day for the demon. Strapped to his back was a makeshift ammo carrier and bag that carried a good amount of the team's demolition charges. Vik'nik, the small reptilian demon, was carrying most of the rest of the explosives in his bag. Shaped much like a bipedal Gila monster, and colored much the same, the demon was capable of tunneling through solid rock. It wouldn't necessarily be needed here, but it was good to have that option if the tunnels closest to the target were inaccessible.

Xander watched as further back, a demon in a black robe walked past the team and further up towards him. It was Terry, who looked mostly human but for grey boney ridges that ran vertically from above his eyebrows to his hairline. He was a mage, which more than made up for whatever physical limitations he may have had in having only human-strength and speed.

Letting him stay right behind him, Xander started through the water towards their target, the sound of sloshing water and rustling cloth marking their progress. Taking up the rear was Thoroop, the troll. Eight feet tall and impressively strong, he was keeping up a rearguard with his Gatling gun. It had been salvaged from one of the T-600's they had faced in the past, not needing much re-rigging to be useful for the last member of the team.

xxx

The tunnels were largely all the same. The same dankness and smell, hours of travel would have been extraordinarily confusing if the team hadn't known where they were going. The trip would have taken about fifteen minutes by car, if it had been travelled before. When the roads were still operable and there weren't Skynet death machines waiting to ambush any living thing on them. About ten miles on the surface required a lot of crisscrossing and backtracking down in the tunnels.

Terry had cast a spell that made them harder to detect, but they had already had to stop and wait for Skynet patrols to pass them by. A number of them had been very close calls, and Xander had actually felt the distortion in the water as a hydrobot swam past his leg. It had been a rather tense moment, and they still had not encountered the rumored HK that patrolled the sewers.

"Over here," Xander said, turning towards his left. They had gotten steadily closer and the terrain had finally changed. Moving forward, Xander reached the end of that section of tunnel, the hatchway to the next room had been removed and revealed the next room. He cast his light forward, the beam reflecting off of what appeared to be even deeper water than what they were standing in.

There were pumps and dials and all sorts of mechanical equipment set in the walls on elevated platforms on both sides of the main room, and from the condition it would seem that the room was still being used for some purpose. Likely as a means of coolant control, which meant that they were nearly at the power facility.

Xander stepped over the threshold and carefully lower a leg. He went into the water deep, the water level reaching a foot past his waist. He moved forward to let the others make their way in. It was unfortunate that there wasn't another way around, but the maps all indicated that this was the only way to the emergency venting system that was their way into the power plant proper.

The others fanned out around Xander, keeping enough distance between them so as to minimize the chance that a hydrobot would just swim into them. They moved quietly, not speaking as they flanked Xander as he made his way to the other side. It was a large room and because they wanted to keep it stealthy, they were all moving slowly.

Old fluorescent tubes that were only half-working buzzed as they shed light over the rippling water. The hairs on the back of Xander's neck stood as he made his way to the halfway point. They had been lucky for the most part, and it had only been Terry's magic that had kept them from being discovered multiple times. He had little doubt that had the mage not been there, the team would have been massacred before they had made it a quarter mile. Connor had been right to be cautious, but sometimes fortune did favor the bold. He hoped.

Xander was just about to take another step when he heard it rise. Spinning to his right, his eyes widened as a small HK rose from the depths of the pool, water cascading off of its smooth metal surface and reflecting the light of Xander's flashlight. It turned on its own headlamps and aimed them at the team, running a scan before engaging.

Xander did not need to do that, instead opening fire with his M4. He was standing only a dozen feet from it, yet the armor piercing rounds did nothing but bounce off of the HK's thick hyperalloy armor. From around him, Xander heard other weapons open up, a giant ripping sound the most evident as Thoroop fired his large multi-barreled cannon at the mechanical beast.

It took a few moments, and there was a part of Xander that believed that it wouldn't work, but the large caliber bullets had their effect as they sprayed and penetrated the armor of the aquatic HK. Small hatches retracted and guns appeared, the tips of them swiveling as the HK tried to aim in the midst of the fusillade. It started to fire, but was thrown off course as a grenade impacted the HK's right turbofan and exploded, causing it to over-power its left fan to compensate.

Bullets stitched their way up the pool, sending small geysers of water up into the air. The members of the strike team dove out of the way, Clore, unfortunately picking the wrong direction to go to. A string of bullets impacted on his mottled grey skin, the demon's machine gun spraying up into the air as his nervous system twitched into death as the bullets penetrated the armor he was wearing as well as his tough hide. Thick black blood flowed from the wounds and mixed with the water as he lay back.

Xander paid it no attention as he tried to move into a better position, still firing his rifle. He couldn't risk glancing over to see how his men were doing, but shouted, "Burke!"

Burke said nothing as he moved back for another shot. Aiming carefully, the demon fired his grenade launcher, feeling the recoil move his shoulder back as he sent another grenade towards the HK. This time it hit the flying machine in the head, blowing out the glowing red sensors and blinding it. Another grenade a moment later exploded the compromised main chassis, causing it to crash back into the water that it had risen from.

"Metal!" Thoroop shouted, as he whirled around. The moment of quiet that had fallen after the destruction of the HK had allowed him to pick up movement from the rear. The weapons fire had alerted other Skynet sentries of the security breach, and they were descending on them now.

Opening up with his Gatling gun, the large troll watched as one triple eight blew apart, its coltan-enhanced armor not capable of defending against that from such close range. Other models appeared as well, a dark colored T-700 and a couple of T-90's managed to make their way through the hatch only to be struck down by a green energy wave that Terry threw.

Xander and Vik'nik moved to flanking positions, opening up with their rifles at the terminators' heads, hoping to hit the vulnerable areas to penetrate to the processor core.

Having to pause to reload, Xander managed to glimpse a couple of hydrobots leaping into the pool, the muzzle flashes and fluorescents glinting off of their shiny metal bodies as they maneuvered over the lip of the hatchway and into the larger pool. "Snakes. Fall back!"

The team could barely hear over the din of weapons fire, but they had. The remaining members of the strike team headed towards the hatchway that led closer to the power plant, hoping that it would provide them some cover if they could reach it in time.

Burke hissed as he was struck by a stray bullet, hurriedly opening up his grenade launcher and inserting fresh ones. Diving to the side to avoid a burst of machine gun fire from another of the floating HK's, the demon fired his reloaded grenade launcher rapidly in succession. He hit the machines in the room they had just come from, blowing a number of the robots apart. Then he tilted his launcher up, blasting at the ceiling above the doorway on both sides. The destruction of the concrete ceiling caused more than just rubble to come down, but also the packed dirt that it had been supporting. The falling material managed to cut off the rest of the machines, burying them in the next room as well as, keeping them from entering the coolant pool.

Xander held up a hand for the team to stop, sweeping the light over the water. While there were no more terminator or HK's visible, two hydrobots had managed to make it through. He scanned back and forth, trying to pick up their presence by their underwater wake. "Where are they?"

Time seemed to slow as one of the hydrobots leapt from the water, its drills whirling in a high-pitched whine. Xander was bringing his rifle up to bear, but it was no use. A burst of rapid-fire caught it in the head and tail, blasting it into scrap metal before it could dive into him.

"That's one," Thoroop said, taking his finger off of the trigger. It was a good thing that he was strong enough to control the weapon, or else he might have taken off the team leader's head with the Gatling gun.

The other metal eel was more careful, coming around behind and then leaping at its target.

Xander managed to hear Terry scream, whirling around as he saw the demon mage try to grasp at his back. It was no use, as the head of the machine burst through the front of the demon's chest, covered in thick blood.

Terry somehow was still alive, looking down and grasping at the writhing body of the robot as it writhed and cut up his upper chest and hands. Looking up at the ceiling, Terry tried to speak, blood flowing from the corners of his lips as his shredded lungs started to fill with blood. "Sho…shoot it."

Gritting his teeth, Xander raised his rifle and fired a burst of rounds, caving in most of the robot's head as well as penetrating the mage's body. Both fell as Terry died, floating in the increasingly dirty pool of water, blood and hydraulic fluid polluting it even more.

"That's the last of them," Xander said, moving forward and double-checking to make sure that the hydrobot was dead. He moved closer and ran his hands down the demon mage's cloak, checking for any particular useful or sentimental objects. Reaching into the mage's pants pocket, Xander pulled out a folded piece of red cloth. It was wet with water and stained, but Xander knew what it was quite well. He opened it up to see the familiar coat of arms, the back of the armband simply had Terry's name hastily written there in black ink.

He folded the piece back up and shoved it into a pouch on his armored vest. Looking up, Xander noticed that Burke had done the same for Clore.

"We need to move," Xander said, turning around and heading towards their destination. The others followed suit, leaving the bodies without a word of protest. They all knew that they couldn't take the bodies with them, and it was better that they try to complete the mission than to dwell on what they couldn't change. He only hoped that the fallen understood.

The remaining members of the team stepped through the hatchway and into the outer corridor of the venting system. Making sure to lock the hatch to give them a little more time, Xander was just glad that the deeply underground and narrow tunnels meant that Skynet had had to give autonomy to the robots and was not in constant contact. There would be no instant response as a result of the attack.

xxx

September 4, 1998

He stood underneath the awning of a store that had closed down, newspaper taped to the inside of the windows, and the light above turned off or broken. It allowed him to stay hidden as he watched Tim say goodbye to a few people.

Xander sunk further into the darkness as Cordelia and her friends left in her unnecessarily expensive convertible. The person he was following waved as he watched them leave, heading towards his own vehicle as soon as the girls had turned the corner. Xander got a bad feeling, the hairs on the back of his neck twitching, and so reached behind his back, resting his hand on his belt next to the handgun that he had placed back there.

Headlights turning on from down the street to his left caused him to squint, turning to look in that direction. It was probably nothing, but Xander stepped forward a little to get a look at the driver. The face was mostly obscured in the darkness, but the street lamp across the street and the reflection of the car's lights off of the asphalt lit up the driver's seat for a second. His eyes widened as he recognized the face. With slightly curly gray hair, and a thick face and prominent chin, Xander remembered the face well. He had seen it up close on both sides.

He ran, not thinking about what he was doing, and forgetting about the gun that would be useless in the present situation. Rushing through the street and painfully close to the car that had swerved to barrel down towards Timothy Frakes as he rounded his own car to get into the driver's seat, Xander jumped and grabbed the kid by the upper chest, rolling them both over the smooth hood of the Mustang and down onto the concrete sidewalk on the other side.

Less than a second later, the car shook and both of them heard the shriek of metal on metal as the terminator's car sideswiped the Mustang. Xander heard it rush off, the tires squealing as the machine made its get away. He wasn't sure why the terminator hadn't stayed to finish the job, but he was thankful for small favors.

Getting to his feet, Xander extended a hand down to help the teenager up.

"Thanks," Tim said, getting to his feet and brushing himself off. He checked himself for injuries, but other than a couple of bruises that would likely form in the morning, he wasn't too bad. He turned to look at the man that had saved him, not recognizing him. "What was that about? Drunk driver?"

Xander stood watching as the car turned the corner, its red rear headlights disappearing as it made its getaway. "Yeah. Probably just a drunk driver."

He was frowning though. Not only was there a terminator operating inside of Sunnydale, it was on a mission to terminator Joseph Frakes' son. It looked like the Frakes family was related to Skynet, even if it wasn't in the way that he had previously thought.

xxx

The terminator kept driving, heading back towards its base of operations. Mentally, the machine was reviewing what had happened as well as scanning its memory banks to see if it could identify the person that had interfered in its mission. Unfortunately, the man had not been facing the right direction and it had been too dark to be able to get a clear shot of the man's face.

It did not get angry or annoyed at the failed operation. It would have to come up with another way to accomplish its primary objective.

xxx

"So he's been targeted for termination?" Burke sighed, leaning back on the couch. He didn't know why a terminator would not take the most direct, and therefore unsubtle, method of termination, but it was clear that this particular unit was intent on killing the younger Frakes.

"Looks like it," Xander said, as he started to load a shotgun. There was no telling when he would meet the terminator again, and he wanted to be prepared. "It could be something the kid does in the future, but I don't remember him."

"We don't know everybody in the Resistance. Or everyone that created Skynet," Burke pointed out as he started to load his M79 grenade launcher. A lucky shot with that would be able to kill a terminator, or at least there was a better chance of that than Xander's shotgun would have, even if it was loaded with special shells. "So what? You follow him to school?"

Xander shook his head. While he might have been able to get himself enrolled as a senior transfer at a school with Burke's hacking abilities, that wouldn't work if it was Sunnydale High School. "If it's supposed to look like an accident, then he should be safe at school. I'll have to trail him after that though. How's the father?"

"Working hard. But, other than that nothing out of the ordinary that I can see." Burke set the weapon onto the coffee table. It had been a lot of dull stakeout work, which was certainly better than the alternative. He was in little mood for action, even if it was necessary much of the time. "With the metal in town, we may have to do this the hard way. Take the dad and interrogate him."

"You may be right," Xander admitted, as loathe as he was to go in that direction. But, with the stakes they were playing with, it might be necessary. "We need to find the triple eight though. There's no telling what it's been programmed to do aside from taking out the kid."

"If it found him once, it'll find him again," Burke said, shaking his head. If there was one thing that the machines were known for, it was that they didn't give up. At all.

Xander looked at the demon and nodded. "You got that right."

xxx

May 17, 2023

The venting system was unused and mostly unwatched. There was little need for it since the coolant tanks were empty and the plant was still unworking. Additional units were needed elsewhere on the global battlefield, and so it needed to get its production facility up and running as soon as possible. Skynet was quickly repairing the power-generating system, and would soon be able to bring the nuclear power plant online. As it was, most of the material necessary was already onsite, the hardest part had been acquiring and manufacturing nuclear fuel rods to the tolerances needed.

Xander knelt down behind a large pump. He listened intently, trying to pick up the unique whine or thunk of the various Skynet units that the central core had deployed to protect the facility. There was nothing that he could detect. Nodding to himself, the Resistance soldier looked at his fellow soldiers and unslung his backpack. "Okay, Burke, take the control room."

Xander took out a portion of the explosives he had in his pack and passed them over to the demon, turning to the next demon in turn and passing out more of the C4. "Thoroop, reactor room. It's probably going to be the most secured. I'll be coming with you."

"Alright," the troll grumbled in a deep and gravelly voice, grinning as he raised and checked his large Gatling gun.

Xander just nodded back and turned to the last demon that was there. "Vik'nik, tunnels underneath the cooling towers. I want them all down."

Vik'nik, licked his lips with a long forked tongue and nodded. He already had his share of explosives in his backpack, adjusting the heavy pack as he tasted the air. But, the best way to do that was to burrow a network of tunnels beneath them and then collapse the tunnels with the explosives. It would be tricky though to avoid bringing the towers down with him still underneath them. "Got it."

Some of them were supposed to be doubled up for this stage of the operation, although Xander had planned for the possibility that not all of them would make it to the facility alive. Still, it would have been better if Burke was able to take a second man with him. And Terry's stealth spells would have made things quite a bit easier. Of course, there was no point to think about that now. They had a mission to complete.

xxx

The power station sat as it normally did, with a few roving Skynet patrols ensuring that there was no damage to the facility and no human presence. The artificial intelligence was still unaware that a portion of the Resistance strike team that had penetrated the station had also managed to make their way to the reactor intact. While they had had to duck a few patrols, Xander and the troll had managed to find it and get in without detection. He was placing the last of the charges to the base of the reactor, with Thoroop keeping a lookout, and Skynet was none the wiser.

"Got it, let's go." Xander slung his now lighter pack back over his shoulder and brought his rifle forward, walking forward out of the shadows. He made his way over to the stairs where the large troll was standing. Checking his watch, they had made good time. With a little luck they'd be able to make their way to the secondary exfiltration point and be able to bypass the way that they had originally tried to come in. Exits would be a little easier since they could access locks from the other side now.

He was still wary about why the Skynet units in the sewers hadn't warned the ones up above about their presence in the sewers. Maybe the cave-in had destroyed or delayed them enough. Perhaps they figured that they were all dead, but it didn't seem characteristic of the machines to simply make those assumptions.

"Good," Thoroop said, glancing to his side. He was about to make his way forward and further up the stairs when the concrete wall above their heads exploded out, fire licking at the edges of the large hole that had just been made. As he raised his giant gun, a T-1 wheeled forward, swiveling its twin miniguns downwards.

Both machine and troll fired at the same time, though the rounds had a much more disastrous effect on the meat than on the machine. Thoroop twitched as the large bullets started to shred his body, falling back and sliding down the stairs as he died. His finger was still on the trigger though, and the minigun kept firing, pushing the mini-tank back.

Xander rushed forward to the base of the stairs, taking cover behind the body of the troll as he searched for a way out. Looking forward, he noticed a scrap of red cloth on the ground, slightly stained with blood. Grabbing at it, Xander rushed forward heading up the stairs as he blindfired at the general direction of the T-1 on the floor above. He didn't bother to stop, rushing through the hallways. He could almost feel the presence of more machines as they no doubt rushed towards him. He could only hope that the others had been able to plant their explosives without incident.

"Apache Team, Apache Team. This is Apache leader," Xander shouted into his communications link, breaking radio silence. There was no point to trying to hide their presence anymore. "Joker's Wild. Say again. Joker's Wild."

He ran through the dimly lit corridors, glancing at the walls every now and then to make sure he was taking the right turns. It was good that they still bore directional markings, though most were rather faded.

"Fuck," Xander exhaled as he suddenly had to dive to his left to avoid minigun fire as a T-600 opened up from behind as he entered a long hallway. He scrambled back, firing back though it would do little good. Getting to his feet, Xander pulled a grenade from his belt and pulled the pin. He tossed it behind him at a cracked section of the wall, glad that it was just a T-600. In the relatively tight spacing of the corridors, he would be able to outrun the machine. Hopefully at least.

xxx

An explosion went off to the west as Xander exited the door, rushing to his right towards their secondary rendezvous point. It had come from the direction of the control room and hopefully it meant that Burke had been successful. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his own radio detonator, taking off the cover and pushing the button without looking at it. It took a second, but he soon felt the vibrations of the explosions of the multiple C4 charges that he had placed. It got worse as the structure of the reactor was compromised and it started to bring the whole building down. He must have gotten a load bearing support or something.

Skynet may be technically competent, but it couldn't repair all of the equipment and infrastructure that they taking out. As he rushed behind a network of pipes and headed towards the secondary piping building, Xander heard the other explosions sound, and even more rumbling as if there was an earthquake. In the distance the giant cooling towers started to crack and buckle, as if falling into a giant sinkhole. It had a secondary affect as it disrupted the ground to his left flank and prevented the machines from coming in to strike at them so easily. He smiled slightly at the success of their mission, and even if they all died, it wouldn't take away from that success. Even if they had already played a heavy price for it.

Xander heard movement and was about to turn when a voice spoke out.

"Keep going," Burke said from behind, running and firing behind him with his grenade launcher. It kept the few machines that had gotten through to close on them back as the grenades detonated and threw up shrapnel and dust. "Vik'nik's already getting the hatch open."

Xander didn't look back as he threw himself at the door as he heard random bursts of gunfire sent in their general direction. He shoved the heavy door aside with his shoulder as he entered the building. He felt a sharp pain as he crossed the threshold, but didn't bother to check as he moved in, heading towards the drainage access that they were looking for. He stopped and turned to cover Burke as he came in.

Burke stopped as he crossed the threshold to the second room. He pointed his grenade launcher at the roof above the door and fired his last grenade, causing some of the roof to collapse and block part of the door. It wouldn't stop the machines from getting in, but it would buy them some more time to get out of there.

"Good?" Xander said, as he started to pant. His shoulder was throbbing, and he started to feel lightheaded.

"You're hit," Burke said with concern, noticing that Xander's dark uniform was getting darker as blood started to flow from an open wound in the man's shoulder.

"Imagine that," Xander said, stumbling back and leaning against the wall. His rifle dropped fractionally as he tried to keep himself upright. His backpack and backup piece felt a lot heavier.

Burke said nothing as he moved forward, ripping off some of his jacket and wrapping it around Xander's left shoulder. It would have to do for now until they could make their escape. They had already lost enough people, and he wasn't planning on losing another.

xxx

September 7, 1998

"The ballistics report just came in," Detective Preston said, dropping a file folder onto the messy desk of his partner. He went to his own desk and dropped into his swivel chair with practiced ease, leaning far enough back to be comfortable, but not far enough to tip over. Bending his arms and placing his hands behind his head, the junior detective smiled at his partner. "I think you'll find it interesting."

Henley said nothing as he opened up the report and skimmed through it. He was working off of the theory that the ruckus caused in the nearby warehouse was related to his crime scene. It was somewhat tenuous, but he wasn't a big believer in coincidences. He frowned as he came to the relevant part that his partner of three years was likely referring to. The senior detective looked up and across the desks. "What the hell?"

Preston smirked, leaning forward in his seat and placing his elbows on the desk. "Some type of exotic round. Depleted uranium, which is rare enough I suppose. Never knew that they started using them as shotgun slugs though."

"Shouldn't be too hard to track down then," Henley theorized. "I doubt that they can be legally purchased, so it leaves thefts, probably military. Or some R&D lab."

"I put in a request to the ATF and to a friend I have in the CID. We'll see what they can come up with, but this guy was good." Preston shrugged. It was only another case in a pile of cases that they were working on, and all the better if they could shove off some work to other agencies. It wasn't like those homicide guys that got all uppity about jurisdiction and turf. It wasn't like anybody n the Sunnydale PD had to worry about getting fired.

"What was he shooting at then?" Detective Henley asked, flipping the file folder closed. "If this guy was so good, then why bother leaving evidence behind. What was he firing at? Stupid place to meet with a buyer, and this guy is anything but stupid."

Preston just looked back at him, making no comment.

xxx

The coat was heavy and hot in the club, but he hadn't really had a choice. If he was forced to come up against a terminator, he'd prefer to have a heavier weapon than the handgun that he had been carrying the last time. And the only way to carry that was underneath something long enough to cover it. Luckily it wasn't actually a bar and security was beyond lax.

There was some band playing a fast song, suitable for dancing to, but Xander didn't recognize it. It probably came out after he had left the first time, but it was popular enough for the crowd of people that were out on the dance floor.

Tim was back in there, as was his crowd of friends. He didn't exactly envy the kid that, but the normalcy of it all was something of a draw. Xander made sure to stay out of sight, he had been seen by the kid and interacted with him, but had shrugged off any attempts at getting too many details. It was better that the kid think of him as random good Samaritan as opposed to word spreading about him if Tim decided to talk at school.

He had staked out a corner near the stairs so that he could get a clear view of the dance floor and bar, but out of the way of the view of most, with the metal stairs breaking up his profile and helping to obscure his identity. Xander had found that he was able to recognize a number of the students, despite it being years for him since he had seen any of them.

Looking over at the door, Xander tensed as he saw a tall figure enter wearing a black watchcap. He seemed much older than the others in the club, even compared to himself. The flashing lights and general dimness obscured the man's face, but it seemed a little odd.

Xander crouched down and placed his drink glass down on the ground. Standing up again, he let his hand drift near his side, watching as the man walked closer to the end of the bar to where the cashier was.

Flashes of blue and red and green scattered over the man as the lights went through their preprogrammed routines in time with the music. Light glinted off of the steel of the gun that appeared in the figure's outraised hand, and the music wasn't loud to obscure the loud gunshot as the man shot the bartender in the forehead.

Clenching his jaw, Xander moved forward, going towards Tim, but not yet drawing his own weapon. He wasn't quite sure of the target yet, but wanted to make sure that he would be in position if it was who, or rather what, he thought it was.

The figure smashed a heavy fist into the cash register breaking it and forcing the drawer out, digging around for a moment and pulling out a large wad of cash. He shoved it into a pocket as he turned, scanning the people in the room and looking for the one that he had identified going into the club.

Xander's eyes widened as the figure turned his head and he was able to get a good look. It was the same terminator as earlier in the week. His hand went behind his back as he tried to move further up and to his right, trying to get through the wild crowd that was rushing to the various exits in search of a way out. He tried to get to Tim as well as keep an eye on the terminator, but it was hard to go against the rush of the crowd.

The terminator fired into the throng of people, aiming at his designated target, but the people running this way and that made it impossible to hit his target precisely. The machine walked forward, ejecting the magazine of its handgun and reloading it within seconds. It was just about to fire again when it was hit in the head by gunfire that deflected off of its metal skull, gouging out chunks of flesh from its cheeks.

"Shit!" Xander grunted as he intentionally drew the terminator's attention to himself. He watched as Tim fell, a body landing on top of him as the terminator started to fire more rapidly and indiscriminately. He rushed over, pushing the body off and helping Tim to his feet. The body fell onto its back, shock evident on the corpse's face as the last thing the person had known before he died.

Xander didn't spare it more than a side-glance but recognized the short teenager as Jonathan. Not one of his close friends, but he had known him. It didn't faze him though, he had seen death before, and he had a mission to accomplish.

"Get up!" Xander shouted at Tim as the boy rose to his feet, turning his head and watching as the terminator approached to get a better position on him. He shoved his handgun into his waistband, making sure that it was safetied with a flick of a finger, and brought up his sawed-off shotgun. There were less people in the club now, most having fled or were dead on the floor. He shoved a girl out of the way with his left hand as she passed him, pointing his shotgun forward and firing it.

The terminator was pushed back a foot or so as the heavy slug hit it in the shoulder, throwing off its aim. Cocking its head, it ran a quick systems check and detected more than minor damage. Considering its options, it moved forward, ignoring the gunman and going for its primary objective.

Xander fired again, hitting the terminator in the arm, and throwing the cyborg's aim off even more. He grabbed Tim by the collar and shoved him towards the front door, following him as quickly as he could. Pumping the shotgun again, Xander lowered the barrel and fired at the terminator's knee, watching as the slug sparked as it went through the terminator's leg joint. It fell hard to the ground as the metal knee buckled.

Not wasting time, Xander ran after Tim, exiting out the front door and dragging him out into the street. He heard sirens already, the police on the way. At best, they would provide a distraction and allow them to escape.

"You?" Tim said, after the man that had grabbed and shoved him had let go. He recognized him now, it was the same one that had seemed him before. "What was that?"

"Quiet." Xander pulled him into an alleyway without speaking, pushing him against the dirty brick wall of an abandoned shop front. He peeked around the corner and watched as the terminator limped out of the front door of the Bronze, scanning around. It walked off into the distance, picking the wrong way to go. Lucky for them.

"I have to go home," Tim said shakily, trying to walk forward. He had no idea what had happened, only that he had been having fun with his friends before some maniac had opened up with a gun. And then a second maniac had fired back.

Xander turned his head and pushed the boy back. He dropped his shotgun back under his coat, stopping it as it swung on its sling. "Not yet."

"What was that thing?" Tim said, still feeling the presence of the man's shotgun, even if it was no longer visible.

Turning to scan the alley, Xander looked at the far end, noticing that there was nothing more than a chain link fence that demarcated it from the other side. There would be a way out over there, and with a little luck they would be able to avoid any more action.

"Listen to me," Xander said, moving around and facing Tim face to face. "That…man was trying to kill you. If you want to live through this night, you'll do exactly what I tell you. Do you understand?"

Tim said nothing, only nodding in response.

"Okay, we're going to over that fence," Xander said, pushing Tim deeper into the alley. He reached into a pocket and started to reload his shotgun. "And then we're going to get out of here."

Tim scaled the fence quickly and silently, deciding not to run as the man still did have a shotgun. He didn't think that he meant any harm, but he was still freaking out, a lot. He backed up to allow the man to climb the fence and land on his side too.

Xander looked behind him after he had landed on the other side. There was still nobody there, and nobody had heard the fence shake. Pulling out his handgun, Xander reloaded it and placed it at the small of his back again. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cellphone, dialing Burke's number.

"What here a second," Xander said to Tim as he waited to be connected. It didn't take very long for. He didn't wait for a greeting, instead speaking first, "September. Seventh, ninety-eight. Trip eight went for the kid, it may go after the dad, so be careful. I'm taking him back to the barn now."

"It might go after my dad?" Tim hissed out, hearing Xander speak on the phone. He was getting even more anxious now. He tried to get more information out, but the man raised a hand to quiet him. He frowned, but said nothing.

Xander placed the phone back into his pocket as he ended the call. He moved the boy closer to the mouth of the alleyway. "I don't know. I'm trying to be careful here. I have someone outside your house in case it happens and he'll keep your family safe. But, right now we need to worry about you."

"Okay," Tim said, not liking it, but not being able to do anything about the situation for the moment. The man previously saving his life made the teenager give him a little bit of leeway. He walked on his own out of the alley and turned towards the left, heading towards the direction of the school and home. "I'll go with you. But, I want some answers."

Xander nodded and walked with him, careful to check his surroundings in case the terminator was still in the area. A few people were still on the street, having run out of side and back doors from the club and trying to find a place to go for safety.

The darkness of the night and having to watch out for Tim while also scanning for the terminator made him miss the short young woman that he nearly ran into. Xander moved aside, looking at her for a moment before his eyes widened in recognition. "Buffy."

All Xander saw was the girl's expression move from shock to anger. And then she moved, her fist went back, and he saw nothing.


	5. Chapter Four: Days of Future Past

**Chapter 4: Days of Future Past**

He came into consciousness quickly, though he didn't show it. It was something that he'd learned over time, even though it never bought him anything. The machines had had him hooked up to so many sensors that they knew instantly when he was back. Still, it was one thing that they couldn't keep him from doing, so it was one more thing that he won at.

Xander could hear voices speaking, slightly echoed at first, but it came into focus soon enough. Quiet whispers and extremely restrained shouts followed by confused questions. He could easily tell who was who, even though it had been years since he had heard most of them say a word. It could go either way, and all he knew was that Buffy had acted before thinking things out. He wasn't sure why, but he wasn't exactly surprised. His face still hurt, but it could have been worse. Restraint on her part, for what it was worth.

He waited a few minutes, but there was nothing to be gained from faking being knocked out.

"I think he's awake," Tim said, watching the man that had saved his life. He had no idea what was going on, but had figured that it was better to go with people that he kind of knew, over the thing that had tried to kill him. Still, he was starting to question that decision upon arriving at the apartment of their school librarian.

Xander raised his head and opened his eyes, not altogether annoyed at being caught. He looked at the various people in the room, and it was pretty much everyone that he had expected. Testing his bonds, Xander looked down and noted that he was tied up pretty well to one of Giles' chairs. They had placed him near the corner, away from most everything.

He looked over to the coffee table, noticing that all of his various weapons were there. A thorough job, which would be something good other than that it was impeding his own objectives.

"Who are you?" Buffy asked, coming around and facing the man that she had knocked into unconsciousness. A rather annoyed expression was on her face, something that wasn't altogether deserved. "What are you?"

Xander just looked at her, expressionless. They all looked pretty much as they ever did. It hadn't been that long for them. His orders in regards to contact with people that he knew was simply not to initiate it. It was common sense that most people wouldn't buy the truth if he told them. This was a different case, though it hardly made him feel any better. "You know who I am."

"How do we know it's you?" Willow asked, trying to temper her hopefulness. She got up off of the couch and came a few steps closer to him, examining him carefully. "You look…you look different. Older."

"Yeah, I know that part of it." Xander tested his bonds again, feeling the nylon rope pull against his chest. Better than steel manacles and chains. "How about letting me go? I have things to do."

"Not before you explain what happened," Buffy nearly growled, arms crossed over her chest.

Xander just stared at her quizzically. It was a bit much, even considering the circumstances. "Hey, you hit me remember? I don't recall coming here willingly."

"You were carrying a gun," Buffy exclaimed, waving a hand towards the coffee table. She had just reacted earlier. She had been on patrol when she had heard the people screaming while coming out of the Bronze. Xander's presence had been a surprise, but she hadn't wanted him to get away this time. The peek of a shotgun under his coat had been enough.

"A good thing for a number of people here," Xander noted, glancing over at Faith. She hadn't said anything yet, and was standing in the back, looking as if she was wondering which way the wind was blowing. Smart move that. As for Buffy, he couldn't really blame her. Under the circumstances it had been the best option she had had. Of course, that didn't do him much good. "You know, what with the hitting and the tying up, you're all going to feel bad about this when you come to accept that it's me. Better quit while you're ahead."

"Then tell us what happened, and we'll untie you," Giles said, coming into the conversation at last. It wasn't exactly a lie, but a simple explanation wouldn't convince anyone of anything and both men knew that.

Xander considered and then nodded. "I need to talk to Tim alone first."

"Maybe we should let him go," Tim said, still wondering exactly what was going on. He knew the girls from school, and Giles was their librarian, but it was getting really weird really fast what with the ease in which they had abducted Xander; Buffy had just carried him off on her shoulder. He wasn't sure what to make of the man, but the fact that he had saved his life twice already made him willing to go on a little faith in regards to him.

"Thanks kid, but I don't think you're going to convince Buffy with that," Xander said, nodding in gratitude. He turned back to the Watcher, his mind going back to what he had heard had happened to the Watchers' Council post-Judgment Day. It was mostly rumors, travelling through the supernatural grapevine, but they weren't a factor in the seven years he was there, which meant quite a bit considering how far Connor's transmissions had gone. It hadn't been pretty, and despite the fact that the Slayer and the Watchers were supposed to be there to save the world, they hadn't been prepared for such a threat. A couple of nukes would make anyone's day pretty bad.

"Tell us what happened to you," Buffy asked again, annoyance and pleading mixed in her voice in differing percentages. She didn't know how much of that annoyance was for him not coming to them earlier, or with herself for not being able to save him from whatever had happened. "Tell us how you came back."

The Resistance soldier looked at her, noting the angry and guilty look on her face. He nodded slowly. "Why am I back? I was sent back. I was sent back by Him to save the world."

xxx

May 17, 2023

"I need a medic," Burke shouted as he half dragged Xander out of the helicopter. He looked around as the support crew started to surround the chopper checking it for damage; a couple of other people approaching them. He waved them all off, looking for someone in particular.

"I'll be fine," Xander said, weakly pushing against Burke's shoulder. He was feeling lightheaded, and knew that the field dressing that Burke had put on him in the chopper had only slowed the bleeding. He was just feeling ornery and argumentative, the loss of three good men did that to him.

"Here, sit down," Burke said, pushing him onto a stretcher that had been rolled up to them by some of the medical staff. "Easy, kid. Lie down."

The doctor moved into place, her hands pushing down on Xander as he tried to sit up. "Easy soldier, we're going to patch you up."

Xander looked up, the fluorescent lights at the top of the hanger causing him to squint. Her red hair was unmistakable, it was Kate Brewster. And that was one woman he didn't want to mess with, even if he was at full strength.

Kate opened up his jacket and vest as he was rolled further into the base. She noted that he was floating in and out of consciousness as they moved, and quickened their pace in an effort to get to the medical bay faster.

xxx

Xander woke up in bed, struggling to sit up. He raised his arm and felt a pinch, grimacing at the sight of the IV that had been taped to his forearm. Reaching over, he ripped it out and swung his feet over the side of the bed. There were a few people in the room in their own beds, the circumstances of their situation making privacy less than an issue. He recognized them all; some of the poor bastards were in considerably worse shape than he was.

"What are you doing?" Kate asked, as she strode over, all green scrubs and stethoscope. She had come a long way from her early day as a veterinarian, pre-Judgment Day. The doctor looked rather perturbed at her patient who had taken it upon himself to direct his own treatment.

"Discharging myself, Doc." Xander stood up leaning against the bed, still a little shaky from the shrapnel wound that he had sustained. It could have been worse; if the metal fragments had been any bigger he probably would have bled out before getting back. Especially if it had nicked an artery or one of those other blood tubes that were so important in the human body. The machines had it easy. "I got…I got to debrief and all that."

"No, you need to rest," Kate said in her doctor voice, placing a hand against Xander's chest to keep him from moving. She knew that it was somewhat futile. Xander had been in the camps with their commander, and was one of his best soldiers. More than that, he was one of his closest friends. And stubborn as hell. Connor called on him often, and gave him quite a bit of leeway because of that.

She looked around her for some help, noticing someone walk by through the corridor next to the medical bay. "Derek, get in here."

"I'll be fine," Xander said, trying to be as convincing as possible. He knew that he was failing at it. He coughed a few times, as his fellow soldier stepped in and helped him keep his feet.

"What's going on?" Derek asked, steadying the man. He knew that Xander and his team had been sent out on a mission. He also knew that not all of them had come back. That type of loss always hit them hard, no matter what species the soldiers came from.

"Nothing, I'll be fine," Xander said, waving off the help with a weak hand. He stopped and took a breath, looking at the doctor that was adamant on him not getting his way. From the glare, he knew that he wasn't doing much more than just annoying the doctor. "I'll be fine. How's Burke."

"He…will be fine, you need to stay in bed," Kate said, frowning as she took a step back. As long as he was just standing there, she would give him a little space. It would be of no use if she fought him the whole way down. She sighed, and looked at him in some sympathy. She had patched together more than her fair share of soldiers, and had lost God knows how many people on the table. It was never easy. "I know that your men died. It was for a reason."

Xander acquiesced and took a step back and sat down on his bed. He looked up at his doctor, his face still a little pale. "Don't. You don't need to. I know why they died."

"They died for the mission," the doctor said soothingly, as she helped him lean back. At least he was being so obstinate. She reached down to pick up the torn off IV, shutting off the drip.

"No." Xander shook his head, as he adjusted his position. He turned his head to look at her. She was sort of a mother figure for them all, a role that she was pretty good at. It didn't make him feel much better though. "They died for John Connor. We all die for John Connor."

Derek just looked on, but he knew the feeling intimately.

xxx

September 8, 1998

"You came from the future?" Giles asked skeptically. Alternate dimensions were something he knew about, but time travel was something else altogether. Although the implications in regards to prophecy made it slightly more believable than crackpottery.

"Yeah, which is as believable as anything we've all been through." Turning his head, Xander took a long look at Tim who was looking rather confused. Looked like they may have known the kid, but he wasn't one of the Scoobies. "Most of us anyway. Probably shouldn't talk about that, but you know what I mean, Giles. So how about untying me and letting me do what I was sent back for."

"You still haven't said who sent you back," Oz mentioned, still wondering exactly what he should make of the situation. Xander was right though, they had all seen things that most people would see as crazy. The idea that he had been sent to the future and then back again wasn't any more unbelievable than the existence of demons and magic.

"And I'm not going to." Xander shrugged as best as he could under the circumstances. He wasn't trying to intentionally be a jerk, but there was a reason for everything that he did. Playing the human game. He had picked up a few of his own lessons from Charles Fischer during his imprisonment, though it had cost him dearly. "The less you all know, the better it is for everyone."

"And you get to decide that?" Buffy asked, getting a little riled up at how little Xander was telling them. Not to mention how calmly he was taking things.

"Yes, I have more experience with this." Xander looked around, noting how young they all looked. Well, barring Giles of course. "What do you want me to say? I already told you what happens. What happened…what will happen. The details, well they don't exactly matter. Not to you anyways. Not if I do things right."

"How do you know?" Buffy retorted, glaring at him. It was all so farfetched, and she couldn't accept that it had happened. It was one thing for him to have to suffer though a hell dimension for seven years, but that the whole world ended was something else entirely.

Xander did not react visibly to her look. "I lived it, remember? The Watchers' Council. They're gone. No Slayers. No plucky band of teenagers with crossbows and swords running around saving the world. This does not work, and the more I say about it, the higher chance there is that word of this gets out. As it is, some of it already has. And, I don't take my orders from you."

"If you told us, maybe we could stop it. Stop this…Judgment Day," Buffy shot back. She was rather struck by the notion that they would all more than likely be dead in a little more than a decade. But, more than that, she was a little annoyed that he deemed them so ineffectual in being able to change it.

"I need people loyal to me." Xander looked over at the Watcher again before turning back to Buffy. He wondered exactly how this would be reported back to the Council. "He, and you, still work for the Council. And you only half believe me as it is. No way that they do, or that this stays a secret if we just start telling everybody. Besides, whatever happens, what you do…what you did, it doesn't work. And unless you're planning on pulling out a stockpile of plasma rifles, you don't have anything that I need. I have my orders. And talking is not part of it."

"You talk like you're some kind of soldier," Willow said, still trying to wrap her head around the Xander she knew only a few months ago to the man that she was seeing now.

Xander smiled slightly, a little weary. It was still Willow, and he had thought about her often over the years. It didn't much change things though. "I am six years in, I was with Him since we started. Actually, I was promoted to first lieutenant a few months or so before I was sent back. MOS Tech-Com. According to some, I have a pretty impressive record. Course, we pretty much all do at this point. Those that are still alive. Which means that I still have my orders. So let me go."

"MOS?" Oz asked.

Xander just looked at him. He was proud of his service record, and while it wasn't something that any of them openly bragged about, he would match his record against anybody else in the Resistance. "Military occupational specialty. I did a lot of stuff. I was assigned to the sapper teams initially, did recon/security for a while. We all did. Is this the part where you let me go?"

It was like the Halloween army guy stuff, only real this time. Willow just turned her head and looked beseechingly at Giles.

"Let's turn back to this man you speak of," Giles said, trying to change the subject. He ignored Willow's look, knowing that she was extremely emotionally invested in what was going on. And that type of investment did nobody any good. "Who is he?"

"I told you, I can't tell you that." Xander shook his head; they were getting nowhere. It was frustrating, though he kept his emotions in check. A hard task even under the best of circumstances.

"Then tell us whatever you can," Giles said, getting used to Xander's stubbornness once again. "Why is he so important?"

Xander just looked at him, wondering exactly what the point of the question was. He wondered if Giles was genuinely curious, or if it was meant to extract exactly why he was doing what he was doing, or even if it was to try to poke holes in his story. Or if it was just to get the interrogation back on course. "I wasn't there the whole time. But, I was there for enough. It was me, Him, a couple of others. It wasn't the only fight going on, but they were on their way out. We all were. Anyway, we were in the camps. It was bad. Stacking, dragging, burning. I don't know how many bodies we cremated in there. He…He brought us back. Gave us hope. Taught us what we needed to know. I don't tell you, because He is more important than each and every one of us."

He looked on to ensure that they all understood the stakes that they were playing with. He had filled them on Skynet and the end of the world. It was all heady stuff, and though they didn't want to believe it, he could tell that they were starting to take him seriously. That would be enough, for now. "Now let me go."

"So what about him?" Faith asked, pointing at Tim, who jerked a little at the attention. He was still unsure at the group, other than picking up on the fact that Xander had been quite close to them before whatever had happened to him.

"He's been targeted for termination," Xander answered the second, or rather third Slayer. He wasn't sure what to make of her exactly. He guessed that Slayer came in all sorts of flavors though, Faith not having too much in common with Buffy or Kendra, aside from the obvious. "I don't know why. All I know, is that if Skynet wants him dead, then we want him alive."

"And you think that you can stop him?" Faith asked, walking over to the table and picking up the shotgun. From the descriptions that he had given of their weaponry in the future and how badly they were doing, she had her doubts. "With this?"

"It. Not him," Xander said, frowning as her finger got dangerously close to the trigger. "And, that's not a toy. And, I don't know if I can stop it. But, I'm damn sure going to try."

"What's this?" Faith asked, picking up a shell that didn't appear to be standard. It was heavier than she would have thought.

"Dewey." Xander looked at the shotgun shell that the Slayer was holding. Those things didn't come cheap, even now. "Depleted uranium shotgun slug. Best we could come up with here, beats firing a grenade launcher in a crowded room at least."

"We can help," Buffy stated bluntly. Not a request, and maybe more than a little wishful thinking. "We can stop it."

"Can you? Cause I don't know if I can, and I've been fighting these things for the last seven years. It's stronger than you. Sure as hell tougher. And you're not going to distract it with some quip, or trick it into thinking that you're not strong as hell. Cause it doesn't matter to it. You come at this thing the way you come at any demon or vampire you faced, and you're dead." Xander looked at them all, knowing that they couldn't exactly comprehend what he was talking about. It was hard to, unless you've seen a metal skeleton rip somebody in half. Or punch through the head of someone that you used to call friend. They hadn't seen the blood, nor heard the screams and sudden silence. "You're all dead. Because these fuckers do not stop. They do not feel. And the best place for you all, is as far away as possible. Because if you die fighting it, then whatever you are meant to do in the future doesn't happen. It could just make things worse. So you going to let me go now?"

"Why won't you tell us anything?" Willow said, almost pleading. A few tears made her eyes glisten in the soft light of the room.

"I know you think I'm being a jerk here." Xander couldn't face her, because he sort of was. Even if it was for a reason, it was never easy. One of those differences between them and the machines, as if it ultimately made a difference. "But, I'm trying to protect you. You can help…maybe…I don't know. Or it could make things even worse. I don't know even know if you particularly believe me."

"Maybe if it was something that we could believe," Buffy said, starting to pace. "And you are being a jerk."

Xander sighed and looked up at her. "This isn't a game. And I don't have time to consider your feelings on the matter. And I really don't care."

"You seem to be taking it well enough," Buffy noted dispassionately.

Scoffing, Xander just shook his head. She had no idea, but then again, she really couldn't comprehend it without having been there. "You don't get it, do you? For you, it's been months. For me, it's been seven years. For me, you're nothing but bleached skulls and ash."

It was a striking moment for them he knew. But, it was the truth. If the nukes or poison didn't get them, it was the hunter killers in various forms. A dragon or an ogre tank, a stray burst from a T-600's Gatling gun, or even a spike from a hydrobot.

"Are you going to let me go?" He didn't bother to look up again, there was nothing new to see. "Because I am getting tired of asking."

Xander didn't exactly expect a response. He waited for a moment before moving again. Looking at them all in turn, he could tell that they were still rather unsure of what to do. He couldn't blame them, though it did present an opportunity. One that wouldn't have occurred to him before he had been sent to the future. The years had certainly had an effect. Not just in terms of aging him physically, but what they did to his mind as well. Being responsible for the lives of his own team had forced him to take on responsibilities that he might not have otherwise. Odd that it was only in the fight against the machines that he had learned something about the human condition. Something that Skynet had taught him about too.

"You don't have a lot of options here, Giles," Xander said, choosing his subject carefully. "You already tested me. I'm not a vampire. I'm not a demon that you've ever heard or read about. And if you think I'm crazy, fine. What's your explanation of what happened tonight? I shot a guy a bunch of times and it…he didn't fall. What's your explanation for that?"

He turned to Buffy. "You can't keep me here forever. I want out, and I'm screaming my head off. The walls to this place aren't that thick, and Giles has neighbors. You want to explain this party to the cops? I'm sure Detective Stein is going to be real interested in what's going on in here with you keeping me here tied to a chair. Or are you just going to knock me unconscious?"

"Torture me until I say whatever it is that you think is the truth?" Xander turned to face Willow, catching her in his eyes and making sure that she couldn't look away. It was a dirty trick, but he was the one at the disadvantage after all. It was always about control. "I stay off the grid because Skynet knows who I am. This isn't the first time I've been a prisoner of war. And, trust me, there isn't anything that you could possibly do to me that I haven't already been through. So you let me go, or we find out exactly how far you're willing to go with this thing."

xxx

The terminator finished tightening a loose cable with the pair of needle-nosed pliers that it had acquired. It had run a systems check and had performed a visual scan after peeling off the damaged skin from its leg. The slug had still been in there and it had taken some effort to remove it from its internal hydraulics.

Flexing, the terminator checked the range of motion for its knee joint, hearing grinding that should not be present. The machine leaned closer and inspected the joint, reaching over to the desk that it was sitting at and picking up a can of WD-40. It sprayed it over its knee joint liberally, though it was no real substitute to the frictionless lubricant that was standard issue back in its own time. The terminators were made tough though, and it wouldn't be a problem.

Testing the joint again, the terminator ran a system check on the leg. It was 87% of optimal, which would have to do. A limp was still in line with what humans could do, and so it would be able to maintain its disguise in that regard. The more important thing was the subject that had interfered in its mission. Picking up the unusually heavy round with its right hand, the terminator ran a scan on the twisted and fractured metal slug. It had already pulled one out of its shoulder and one from its forearm. They were all identical, depleted uranium shotgun slugs. While hand-held weaponry of this time was mostly ineffective, there were some weapons that were capable of damaging its chassis.

It was illogical to presume that it was just coincidence that the man that had shot it had just gotten lucky with his ammunition. The more logical conclusion was that it was a Resistance soldier that had been sent back in time to protect Timothy Frakes. Which meant that it would have to take more care in the future in regards to its objective. It also meant that making the termination appear to be an accident would be more difficult or possibly impossible at this juncture.

Setting the slug down on the top of the desk next to its twins, the terminator looked into the wall mirror at the damage that had been done to its face. The bullets had impacted and deflected off of its metal skull, so there was nothing more than gouges in its flesh covering, though with some bare alloy still showing. The wounds would heal quickly enough, allowing it to blend into the human population once again.

Until then, it would have to wait and bide its time. It had other avenues to explore in the meantime, and though primitive, the computer networks of the day still offered up a plethora of useful data that would help the machine in executing its objectives.

xxx

The police detective said nothing, standing off to the side of the still rather dark room as the techs did their jobs collecting evidence and the detective assigned the case stood there looking important. Henley couldn't exactly say why he was there, but he had been in the area when the call came up. Some of the details piqued his interest, and though it wasn't officially in his bailiwick, he felt compelled to be there. As mundane as the details of the case were on the surface, he got the feeling that there was something going on down deep. And he had learned long ago to trust his gut.

He walked up to the detective in charge of the case, keeping his personal feelings in regards to the other police officer from showing on his face. Word got around the precinct, especially in a town that small, and he was less than impressed with Detective Stein's record. Still he couldn't exactly say anything negative, since he wasn't in the homicide unit, while Stein, somehow had gotten that placement. The more years he put in in government service in Sunnydale, the more intense the feeling that something off was going on in City Hall. "You know what went down?"

The bald headed detective turned to face the other cop. He wasn't pleased that some other detective saw fit to just stand around his crime scene. Even if Henley hadn't said anything until now. "Little outside your jurisdiction, isn't it Henley?"

The robbery cop shrugged, ignoring the venom dripping from the other man's voice. "I hear it was a rip. That's robbery. Technically."

"And more than a couple of people got killed." Detective Stein waved a hand at the techs who were still in the process of taking pictures of the bloodstains, the bodies having been removed and were probably already at the city morgue. Quite a few parents would be getting phone calls that night. "That makes it homicide. Technically."

"Yeah, well some of what I was hearing seemed to be similar to a couple of cases I'm working," Henley said, shrugging again. He tried to keep it light, trying to not give Stein anything to use. "I thought I'd see if there was a connection. Initial reports said that the second gunman, the one that tried to stop the robbery, was carrying a shotgun."

"Yeah, so?" Stein said, shaking his head. He had no idea what the other police detective was talking about. He wasn't even sure that the second gunman's intention was to stop the robbery. It was that type of guesswork that he frowned upon as a detective.

"Any idea if any sort of special or exotic ammunition was used?" Henley asked, looking over at the damage that the gunfire had wrought in the club. It wasn't much use, and he would either have to move to get a better look or wait for the crime scene photos, but it seemed rather normal. Much to his surprised disappointment. Maybe he just wanted to get a handle on his own case, or maybe there was something more to his mystery robber's motives than straight profit and the occasional firearms violations.

Still, the reports that the robber had been hit multiple times in the head without going down made him question just how normal the whole situation could be.

"Not really," Stein droned on, getting rather annoyed at the interference. "But, I'll be sure that you get a copy of the ballistics report when I get it."

Henley could feel the jurisdiction coming off in waves from the man. He took a step back and put up his hands in placation. "Sure. Thanks for your help, Paul."

He turned to leave, still having that nagging feeling that it was all related. Even if he couldn't exactly understand why.

xxx

May 19, 2023

"You don't have to do this right now," Burke said, as he walked beside Xander. The sound of his words echoed off of the catacombs. The tunnels that had been dug to extend the base they were using had intersected with a natural cavern system underneath Los Angeles. The demons and other supernatural folk that had moved with him to Los Angeles to join the fight had taken up residence in the caves. They lived apart, keeping to themselves, though they never shirked their duty. He made sure of that.

Acceptance, even in the face of extinction did not come easy. Sometimes he couldn't really blame the machines for turning on humanity.

Xander said nothing as he walked, concentrating on keeping his footing on the uneven stone-lined ground. He was still feeling a little weak, and his shoulder was rather sore. He was off active duty for a couple of more days at least, and while he had protested, he knew that it was as good of a deal as he would get. It didn't take long for them to hear muttering, the dim light of bulbs strung up along a wire leading to fires and makeshift overhead lamps, as they reached the central cavern that was the main gathering place of the inhabitants of the Underworld.

He noticed that the muttering got louder and then stopped as he approached a large tall and flat rock that marked the center of the cavern. Xander said nothing, waiting for more and more people to notice him and crowd around. A number of demons filtered in through side tunnels, some coming down from the stalactites that hung from the tall ceiling of the cavern.

There was a good-sized crowd before Xander spoke, and he was able to catch many of them by eye. It was only through mutual respect, mostly on his part, that they were on such terms. He knew that there was still some apprehension about their presence. They'd proven themselves as far as he was concerned, but old beliefs died hard. Even in the presence of Judgment.

He waited for all of the side conversations to cease before he spoke. Looking across the dozens of faces of mixed species, he spoke, "You all know what happened. You all know why I'm here."

Reaching into his pocket, Xander pulled out three armbands and placed them on the flat rock that he stood next to. The pieces of cloth were frayed and stained, the inked names just barely visible in spite of the damage. He watched as a small demon that looked like it was made of stone walked forward and picked up the red armbands, carrying them off to a back wall. The demon tacked them onto a wood panel that had been set there, next to a number of other armbands. Frowning, Xander took them all in, knowing that there were already too many to count easily.

The machines did not distinguish by race or species, even if humanity did.

He turned his attention back to the crowd. They knew what he was there for. It wasn't that they didn't pull their weight. Those who could, served sentry duty. They went on patrols for supplies and security as needed. They served as sappers; taking out the various ogre tanks and dragons that still pestered them in the ruins up above. But, he was asking for more, and worse than that, he knew that he'd get it. "I need three volunteers."

xxx

"You're going back out there," Blair noted, arms crossed and leaning against the makeshift door that led into Xander's room. Most of them couldn't be so lucky as to get private quarters, but his were near the Underworld, and the space there wasn't exactly in high demand. Location was the name of the game, or just taking advantage of people's prejudices.

"Tomorrow," Xander said, examining his bandage and making sure that it was still clean. He looked up to notice Blair's disapproving look. "Connor has a suspected factory that he wants us to check out. Shouldn't be too bad. Training mission for the new guys. Milk run."

He wasn't sure who he was trying to convince.

"No air cover," the pilot noted. She had heard the general outline for the mission. Supposed to be on the cheap and quiet, an attempt to keep the machines from noticing their efforts. Of course, the constant lack of supplies was always an unstated factor.

"Sometimes we have to live dangerously," Xander said, sitting down on what could loosely be considered his bed. It was better than he had for a while when he had first arrived, and he had learned to get used to roughing it. "You know that as well as I do, hotshot."

Blair moved into the room, kicking the sheet metal panel that served as the door across the opening, somewhat closing them off from the tunnel outside. It was more a gentle reminder than a physical barrier. "Connor sends you on a lot of missions."

"It's cause I'm so damn good," Xander said, a weary smile on his face. It was true though, and everybody knew it. John picked favorites, and some people did question whether it was because they were the most loyal, or if they were the best. He preferred to think that it was the latter, although the scuttlebutt did mention the former quite a bit.

Blair smiled back a little. "Or lucky."

"Or lucky," Xander repeated, standing up. He wondered if she wanted to get into it again, something that he would prefer not to do sitting down. Feelings on Connor were varied, and his communications with personnel in other bunkers made him very aware of what Command felt about their little operation. Never mind that they managed to hit Skynet harder than any other Resistance cell out there. That might have something to do with it, or maybe it was the people that John had managed to pull around him.

Blair just examined him; he looked about as he always did. Some scrapes and bruises, nothing that she hadn't seen on him a hundred times before. That in itself was troubling. "You trust him a lot."

"Don't you?" Xander asked, brow furrowing.

Blair considered his attitude, it was as if it had never occurred to him not to. "You know what they say about him. I follow him, because he's in command. Something that not everyone higher up is so happy about."

"I trust him completely, because he earned it." Xander stared at the door, and sighed. She wasn't saying anything that he hadn't heard quite a few times before. Often from her. "Lot of things happened in Century."

Blair shook her head, she had heard the same thing from Kyle before too. It was like there was a cult of personality around John Connor, mainly centered on the people that had been in the camps with him. She wasn't sure if she bought into most of it. He was an effective fighter and leader, and was always willing to put himself in harm's way. It was more than Ashdown was willing to do, floating around in a modified nuclear submarine off the coast of California. Far away from the reach of the machines. Still… "They say he's crazy. They say…"

"Who? Who says he's crazy?" Xander asked, frowning.

Blair shook her head again, dark shoulder-length hair swinging. "It's not important. They say that he knows things. Thinks he knows things. Things that haven't happened yet."

Xander smiled slightly, one that usually infuriated the Resistance pilot. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe he does?"

"You act like he's some kind of prophet or messiah." Blair exhaled loudly, crossing her arms over her chest.

He knew that there was more than that. Xander had been there from the beginning, and knew a little more about the man than most. It wasn't that there was a shared experience with time travel, but that it meant that Xander had been willing to believe. John Connor had confided in him as a result. It certainly explained things.

"You take risks because of Connor; it's going to get you killed." Blair frowned, it was a conversation that they had had before. She didn't understand it, and doubted that she ever would.

"No more of a risk than your dragon slaying." Xander smiled a little wider. He had seen Hickabick do her own share of risk-taking. That she hadn't been shot down yet was a minor miracle. "I don't know how things are going to end. I don't think that John knows exactly either. But I believe in him. I have seen too much…done too much, not to. Maybe you just need a little faith."

Blair sighed, it wasn't an argument she was going to win. Although she wasn't exactly sure why she wanted to go over it yet again. The man just brought it out in her. "Just be careful, alright?"

"I try." Xander said reassuredly. He looked her up and down, trying to read her facial expression and posture, and then moved closer to the woman. "So, STAF?"

Blair just nodded, closing the distance and kissing him hard on the lips.

STAF. Sit tight and fuck.

xxx

September 8, 1998

Stretching, Xander leaned down and picked up his cell phone. He flipped it open and quickly dialed a number. He checked his watch before speaking, "September eight, ninety-eight. It's not the father. The trip-eight's after the son. I got him here with me now. You still at the house?"

Xander turned slightly and noticed that they were all looking at him. He ignored it though, and turned his attention back to his phone conversation. At least they had begrudgingly let him go. He only hoped they didn't reconsider in the next five minutes. "Okay. We're going to meet up there. I'll take him there myself."

He hesitated before speaking anymore. "They found me out. I'll deal with it. I'll fill you in on the details, but you better get ready. We need answers now. I don't think we have the time anymore to finesse this thing. Trip-eight made another attempt. We got away, but it's not being subtle anymore. Pack heavy, we're not going to get lucky another time."

"Who was that?" Buffy asked, she had strained to hear the conversation from across the living room, but had not been able to make out very much.

Xander just looked at her. "Partner. He was sent back with me."

"The demon?" Buffy asked, though she had already figured on the answer.

Nodding, Xander stuck the phone into a pocket. "Yeah. The demon."

Xander shifted back to the coffee table and started to gather his belongings. His wallet joined his cellphone in his pants. He checked his handgun and placed it back in his belt, making sure that it was secured tightly.

"So that's it?" Faith asked, stepping forward and watching as the man slid on his jacket. She had helped search him, and she had noticed some interesting artwork on the man's body. The dragon wasn't anything she hadn't seen before, but the bar code that looked like some sort of brand was something else altogether. Not to mention the scars. It was intriguing, to say the least.

Xander just looked at her. "Yeah, that's it. Try to forget I even exist. It'll be much safer for you if you do."

He walked towards the door, hiding the shotgun under his coat. Xander noticed Willow's eyes were on him, but he tried to ignore it. She was showing remarkable restraint, although it may be that she was still trying to digest it all. Instead he turned to Tim. "You ready?"

Tim just nodded, not liking that he was just being led around, but glad that it seemed that he was about to get some actual answers. He wasn't sure about the whole machines from the future, but with what he had seen in the Bronze, he was willing to go a little further with it. It had turned into that kind of night.

Raising an upturned hand, Xander turned to face Giles who stood at the door, looking a little disapproving. "I need your car."

"What?" The Watcher said, surprised by the request.

Xander shrugged. "I'll make sure you get it back, but I don't want to have to walk him home. It's not a getaway, I just need something to get us there. It'll be safe. I hope."

Weighing the options, Giles reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys. He took the car key from the ring and placed it in Xander's hand. "Make sure that you bring it back."

It was probably the best chance of speaking to Xander again; he wasn't going to get anywhere else that night. He knew that much at least.

"Thanks." Xander opened the front door and checked outside, making sure that there was no one outside waiting for them. He stepped outside, and waited for Tim to follow. As he stood in the cold night he looked inside, watching the people in the brightly lit room look at him. They all looked at him as if they were expecting something. Like he could provide some easy answer for what had happened, or what would happen.

He shrugged at them all, catching eyes with Willow, his oldest friend once again. He whispered, to her, though he knew that none of them could hear it. "I'm sorry."

xxx

"So we just let him go?" Willow asked, slumping down into the couch. She let Oz put a hand on her leg, but she couldn't help but feel that it was all so anticlimactic.

Giles sighed, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. He was so very tired. It was late enough as it was, even before they had arrived. "Until he comes back. He was right. We couldn't exactly hold him here."

It was something of a shock. Even more than the difference in age, Xander had carried himself much differently. Somewhat ironic since he had been tied to a chair for most of the time that he was there, but it was still the truth. He had been calm throughout, and much more in control of his emotions than he had ever seen the young man. More than that, he had been in control of the situation. What he had said was all carefully laid out, from his choice of who to look at to how to speak; it had all been chosen to get what he wanted. It wasn't that Xander couldn't be incredibly insightful, because he had been that at times in the past, but that he had been able to utilize it so well. He wasn't sure if he completely believed that Xander had been sent to the future rather than an alternate reality, but he believed that Xander was telling them all the truth as he knew it. He couldn't believe that what they were doing now could all be so futile. But as the boy had proven before, fate had a way of not working out as expected.

Buffy just sighed, sitting in one of Giles' club chairs. She had tried so hard to get Xander back that she hadn't actually considered what he would be like if they had gotten him back. It hadn't been real to her that Giles' constant reminders that he had likely been sucked into a hell dimension would change him irrevocably. That it was the future, if Xander was to be believed, made little difference. The hardships that he had suffered had changed him. It had been blindness that she had thought that she would be able to get her Xander-shaped friend back so easily.

Faith just leaned against the wall, looking at them all moping. Shaking her head, she pushed off and headed towards the door. The whole mope fest from them being so close-knit and Brady Bunch was wigging her out.

"Where are you going?" Buffy asked, head snapping towards the other Slayer as she opened the door audibly.

"Home," Faith said, though that wasn't where she was planning on going at all. She wasn't one to follow orders, and she was still rather curious on what exactly Xander was planning on doing. It beat standing around there and indulging in the pity party that the others were enjoying.

xxx

"Tim?" Joe asked, bleary-eyed as he heard the front door open and close. He hurried to it, turning on the hallway light. He started to speak loudly even before he got to the door. "Do you have any idea what time it is? I saw on TV that-"

Tim's father stopped speaking when he noticed that his son hadn't come home alone. "Who are you? What's going on?"

Xander said nothing at first, instead pulling his handgun out from behind his back. "Sorry, but we need to talk."

"I'll give you whatever you want, just don't hurt him," Joe said, raising his hands.

Xander shook his head. "I'm not here to rob you. In fact, I'm here to help. But, I need you to be truthful and listen to me very carefully."

"It's okay, Dad," Tim said, trying to reassure his father. He turned to face the man he had brought home. "Put that away, you don't need that."

Xander considered, and then put the handgun away. That it was there was established, and that was all that was necessary at this point. "Where's your wife? Is there anybody else here?"

He would have wanted Burke in on this at this point, but he knew that trying to establish the existence of demons as well as artificial intelligence machines bent on world domination was too much for one night.

Joe shook his head. "No. There's no one else here. My wife's visiting her sister. In Chicago."

"Let's go into the living room and talk," Xander said, directing the two Frakes into the room on the right and taking a seat on the love seat and pointing the other two towards the leather couch that lay against the side wall. "I just want to be clear. I don't want to hurt either of you, but it's very important that you tell me the truth. Do you understand?"

Joe nodded. He wasn't sure what was going on, but knew that the man wasn't here to rob him, not directly at any rate. His mind flashed to his work for the company, the home security that the company had insisted be installed raised alarms in his head now. "What is this about?"

"Your son was attacked tonight," Xander said, looking the elder Frakes in the eye. "It wasn't the first time. He's been targeted for…well assassination. I think it has something to do with what you're working on. I need to know exactly what it is."

"I don't…I don't know what you're talking about?" Joe said, shaking his head in denial. It seemed to be more and more linked to his work, and likely the theft that had occurred a short time ago. That didn't fill him with much hope. "I work on a lot of projects, but none of them are that important."

"Right," Xander said, frowning. Pulling out his handgun, Xander laid it in front of him on the glass top of the coffee table. "Tell me about Project Falcon."

"What?" Joe said, gulping. He was getting more and more fidgety, trying to figure out how much he should say to this incredibly well-informed and obviously dangerous man. He was contractually obligated to be secretive, but this was his family at risk. "I don't know what you mean."

"I stole five pounds of coltan from you," Xander stated, adding a little heat to his tone of voice. "I know that you know what the project is. What I need to know, is exactly what it is. I told you that I don't want to hurt you. But, the thing is that what went after your son, isn't as nice as I am. So please, if you value your son at all, you're going to tell me. Now."

"Please, Dad," Tim said, turning to his father. "What happened tonight, I don't know. But, I do know that we should trust him. Tell him."

"Tell me what happened tonight first," Joe threw out, chancing things a little.

Xander nodded, and smiled knowing that it wasn't that likely that he would be believed. He would have to be a little more tactful this time. "An assassin was sent to kill your son at the Bronze. You may have heard about the robbery tonight. People ending up dead. That was just cover for the hit. He already tried before, and if it hadn't been for me, your son would be dead. And the only reason I can see is that it has to do with what you're working on. Believe me when I say that whatever you're working on for Calax, it isn't worth the life of your son. What is Project Falcon?"

"It's a joint venture between Calax Research and Development and Cyberdyne Systems. Next generation unmanned aerial vehicle with combat profile. It's meant to sever the connection between the UAV and the operator, allowing it to perform complex maneuvers and carry out multiple objectives without operator input," Joe explained quickly. He knew that he wasn't supposed to say anything, so he kept it as vague as he could. At least, without divulging real specifics on the design.

The blood drained from Xander's face. "How far are you along on this?"

"We were about to move into making the first test type," Joe explained nervously. "Fabrication. The outer shell mostly. But, that's pretty much set back with the…I guess your theft of the coltan. The processor we're getting shipped to us from Cyberdyne once we're done manufacturing and testing the chassis. That would be at least a month after though, wind tunnel tests and the like. I have schematics and blueprints."

Xander just nodded, not liking any of what he was hearing. "Do you have anything here?"

Joe hesitated before nodding. "Yeah."

"Show me," Xander said.

Joe got up, bumping into Tim as he stood up too. They moved towards his office, Xander pausing to grab his gun before joining them. He didn't know exactly why the engineer was going along so willingly, but he couldn't think of anything else to do. Turning on his computer, Joe logged on and accessed the files that were on the hard drive.

"I don't have everything here, but I have some of the general schematics," Joe said, swiveling around the monitor so that Xander could see it. He watched the man carefully, noticing that he didn't seem particularly surprised, but was oddly saddened by what was on the screen.

Xander watched the wireframe fill in, noticing it rotate around a vertical access. It was primitive, and relied on early human-based technology. The size was much smaller, but it was obvious to any human from the future what it was. A wide base with sensors in the nose, the body flanked by a turbo prop to either side. A tail fin for stabilization and control completed the thing. He could even see where weapons would be placed, the plan calling for modular hardpoints to provide flexibility in terms of mission parameters.

Tim looked at the monitor as well, not knowing what he was seeing. But, he could tell that it was affecting Xander deeply. "What is it?"

The Resistance fighter didn't bother to turn his attention to the boy. "The future."

The moment was broken when his cell phone rang, and Xander reached into his pocket for it without taking his eyes of the screen. He made sure that Joe didn't try anything though. He still wasn't sure exactly how he was going to handle not being exposed if he left. Because he doubted that Joe would just promise to keep quiet, even with his son's urging. "Yeah?"

xxx

"Faith's outside, skulking around," Burke said after the traditional greeting, ducking down as well as he could in the van that was currently parked across the street from the Frakes' residence. "And, she's not exactly being subtle. Is the alarm system turned on?"

He waited for Xander to answer, frowning at the answer. "You want me to…are you sure? She doesn't strike me as the type to not stab first and question never."

"Fine, but I'd just like it on record that this is a stupid plan, sir." Burke closed his phone and shoved it back into a pocket. He scrambled up and exited out of the back of the van, closing the rear doors and locking them while holding a grenade launcher in a large hand.

At the very least, he blended in well with the dark, moving quickly across the street and towards the girl that was trying to peer in through the front windows. Very unsubtle-like on her part.

"You know, for a Council that tries to not be in the public eye, looking in through windows isn't particular good protocol," Burke said, approaching the Slayer, but not getting too close. He didn't want to sneak up on her. He wasn't scared of her, but he didn't exactly relish the thought of having a fight he wasn't allowed to win. Especially in a populated suburban neighborhood.

Faith spun around, eyes widening as she took in the mountain of a demon that was approaching her. She saw the odd looking gun in the monster's hand, which made it all the more surreal. The description did match the demon that Buffy encountered when they had faced Kakistos. "Who are you?"

"Doesn't matter. Xander wants you inside, where you can't get into anymore trouble," Burke waved towards the front door with his empty hand. It opened as if on cue, Tim peering out for them. "Let's go. You might want to tell the kid what to expect."

xxx

"Uh, the others are here," Tim said, leading the pair into the office. Faith had explained somewhat what the other "person" was, but it hadn't sunk all the way in yet. He was coping though, after all, he had seen the terminator that had been sent after him get shot in the head with no ill effects. Demons were simply more of the crazy piled on top of the other crazy that he was being exposed to. The hope that he would wake up and have this all be a dream was dying though.

"Oh my God," Joe muttered as he saw the large demonic looking form walk into the office.

Burke smiled a little, which really didn't help matters. Pointed teeth and red eyes usually didn't. "Wrong direction. But, it's okay, I'm on your side. What's going on?"

"Take a look at this," Xander said, waving him over to the computer. "And watch them."

He moved over to let Burke look at the computer screen, the demon would be able to make more sense of the data than he would be able to anyways. Xander pulled the Slayer by the elbow out of the room, dragging her down the hall so that they wouldn't be overheard.

"Son of a bitch," Burke growled, noticing that the two humans took an unconscious step back as he spoke. He ignored it, they would have to get used to it eventually. "Independent thought process and objective control. Multi-target tracking system. Full sensor array."

The demon looked up and stared at the Calax director, his red eyes piercing in unfathomable emotion. "You and your genius intellect. Making the shiniest toys, right? In a decade, your technological marvel is going to be deployed to hunt humanity down. You're the reason why you're an endangered species. Nice going."

xxx

"You know, in another life the whole bad girl rebel thing would be really fucking hot," Xander said, leaning against the side of the hallway. He looked at Faith, not having the energy to get angry at the girl. They wouldn't be there if they weren't rebels themselves. "But, I have way too much going on to have to worry about you not listening. Which you're probably not going to listen to either. So, what exactly should I do with you?"

"I just want to know what's going on." Faith said, smiling sultrily. Usual cover, but she was starting to question exactly what it was she was trying to do. At any rate, she wanted to know if she should skip town once again. "You're the one that said it was so important, and if Buffy won't bother finding out. I figure I should. I gotta live here too after all."

"You think you can help?" Xander challenged her. He hadn't seen her in combat exactly, but he got the feeling that as much of a rebel as Buffy could be to the status Watcher quo, it was nothing on what Faith was. It didn't impress him though.

"Somehow, I get the feeling that that's not what you want to know," Faith said.

Xander just looked at her, feeling the early hours of the day. Playing things by ear was starting to catch up to him. "STAF?"

"What?" Faith asked, eyebrows furrowed.

Xander shook his head, he hadn't been serious anyways. That wasn't him anymore. And it was just more evidence that this wasn't his world anymore either. "Whatever you have going on with the whole Slayer standing alone against the darkness bit, leave it at that. Because you don't want any part of this war. Trust me. Go home. Please."

"You said that you wanted people loyal to you," Faith said, some irregular hesitation in her voice. She wasn't sure exactly why, but she trusted that he was telling the truth. She'd seen enough strange things that this wasn't any more outrageous in her opinion. "And that we were already loyal to the Watchers' Council."

"Yeah," Xander said, remembering what he had said.

Faith just looked at him, more serious than she had been so far in Sunnydale. She may play the rebel, and may appear to not take her duty seriously, but she did understand the stakes. "I'm no fan of the Watchers' Council. Think about it."

Xander nodded, and then tilted his head back towards the office. He wasn't sure if she was telling the truth or not, and at this point he couldn't worry about it. It didn't matter, since this was one area of the timeline that he had no intention of getting directly involved in. Or, would try to avoid as much as possible. "I have to get back. You can find your own way out, right?"

Faith inclined her head. She knew when to push it, and when to let things lie.

xxx

"They're not going to let this go," Burke remarked, keeping an eye on the two Frakes men as they talked to each other quietly across the room. He wasn't sure what to do about the engineer and his son either. "They let you go way too easily."

"Yeah, they're going to be looking for me again. Probably trying to figure out what to do with me. I just wonder what they're going to tell the Council," Xander remarked, looking at Tim, trying to see how things would swing. He had saved the kid twice already, and though they didn't have direct evidence, it wasn't nothing. That had had to have some effect on the father. "What about them?"

"Trust that the father trusts the son," Burke grunted. That was the way the game was played. Skynet usually had more information than they did, and whatever insights John Connor may have had, it wasn't detailed on this level. "And Falcon?"

"One way or another, the project goes down," Xander said. He didn't exactly know how that would be handled. Offsite data storage would make it impossible to simply destroy the files, not to mention that it was being worked on at multiple sites all across the country. Culling the staff wouldn't work either, since the hard part was mostly done already. As it was, Joe was mainly management as opposed to directly working on the project. "The trip-eight's more important. We need to find it. Because we can't sit on Tim forever."

"At least we have bait," Burke remarked dryly.

Xander nodded in agreement. "We do have that."


	6. Chapter Five: The Chesire Gambit

**Chapter 5: The Cheshire Gambit**

September 16, 1998

"So this is your idea?" Burke asked, kneeling down as he fastened the metalwork to the floor. It was bolted through the floorboards, and he made sure that he didn't touch any pipes or electrical work. After he was done, Burke placed carpeting over it, making sure that it was flush against the walls and that the grid wasn't easily noticeable. Across the hallway, Xander was pulling large industrial-strength power cables through a couple of holes that had been cut through the floorboards, the other end already connected to the metal.

Xander looked over at the demon, still tugging at the cables. "We can't keep running. And Tim and his dad want proof. They aren't going to up and disappear, leaving everything they know behind, just because of our word. This is the only way."

Burke just grunted as he stood up, looking at the work that they had just finished. It had taken some time; they had had to use a good amount of cash to rent the right place. It was in the bad and deserted area of town, but had good wiring that would let them pull enough from the city's power grid for their purposes. Also, the neighboring building had a number of dog owners; the dogs being rather large and loud enough to be heard from the room that they were in. Thin walls, but it was good that there was nobody else on their floor. Not to mention that the landlord had been suitably nonchalant about not looking too closely at Xander's identification with regards to renting the place.

"You think about Faith's offer?" Burke asked, stopping and looking at his commanding officer. While they could use the help, he knew that it was too close to involving Xander's old circle of friends. He wondered if Xander was getting nostalgic, or was specifically trying to avoid that by avoiding them.

Xander seemingly didn't hear as he went about his business. He made sure that the power cables weren't stuck on anything, and had enough slack in the hall to be able to be seated firmly in the makeshift ports that he had attached to the main wiring in bedroom. He ran them through a couple of holes that he had cut into the main bedroom.

"L.T.," Burke stated sharply, trying to get his attention.

Snapping his head around, Xander looked at the demon. "I thought about it."

"And?" Burke pressed.

Xander just narrowed his eyes. "And I don't have to explain my decisions to you, Sergeant."

Burke didn't say anything. While they were close friends, they were still in the Resistance. That meant military, even if it was technically over a decade before the Resistance would even exist. And rank did have its privileges. "Yes, sir. But, I would remind the lieutenant, that we aren't exactly flush with recruits right now. Sir."

Xander sighed. "I know. But, it's bad for a number of reasons."

"Like?" Burke returned to his work, though he cocked an eye at him.

Shrugging, Xander stopped feeding the cables into the bedroom. "She's too close to the Council and Buffy and the others. Don't know how much I can trust her. And I have no idea what happens to her or what actions she takes between now and Judgment Day. Things could change if we involve her and she changes what she does, or if she dies early. There are other end of the world scenarios that could have played out between then and now."

Burke just looked at him. "Way I see it, things can't get much worse. We're already trying to change things as it is, it might make things better. Hard not to."

Xander looked back. "I'll take that under advisement."

"I guess we're done, then." Burke wasn't that satisfied, but it would have to do for the moment. He moved farther into the apartment, taking a seat on a threadbare couch that they had moved in there. There wasn't much furniture in there, only the bare necessities for their purposes.

"Not yet," Xander said, walking over and taking a seat on an upturned wooden cable spool in the middle of the main room. "We still need to bait the hook."

Burke frowned. He wasn't necessarily a fan of the plan, not so much because it was bad, but it was an awfully big risk. Not just in regards to the metal that they were bringing down on their heads, but that hacking into the police database was too close to official attention for his tastes. Not to mention that it was about a case that they were actually involved with, no that the cops were aware of that fact. Yet.

Still the machines were nothing if not thorough and would run down any clue it came across. Even planted ones. They were predictable like that, utterly ruthless and methodical to the last.

xxx

October 23, 2026

"I don't like this," Xander said, leaning against a workbench. It was warm and cramped, the room filled with boxes and shelves of parts. Some of them were scavenged materials from old computers, from PC's to workstations, and others were bits from various terminators that had been destroyed over the years. Random servos and sensors lay mixed in with joints and hydraulics. It was Connor's personal laboratory, and next to nobody had been in there. Some would be shocked at what they would find in there he imagined. "Sir."

John looked up at him, turning off the table mounted magnifying glass that he had been looking through. He blinked a couple of times to clear his vision and then smiled grimly. "I know, but it's been working out so far. The tests look good. The programming seems to be holding, and it looks like I've identified all of the memory and command sectors. Scrubbing should be complete."

Xander shrugged, not saying anything. That wasn't all he was talking about.

"They're machines, efficient, even elegant in their own ways," John continued, rubbing his forehead free of sweat. He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. "Predictable. They're thorough and ruthless, but not that smart. You blank the programming, insert your own, and they do what you want."

"I know, they follow routine. Sight, sound, I know their tracking systems. And…" Xander sighed, looking away. He had gotten pretty good at anticipating what the various terminators would do in any given situation. His time in the field had made him as much of an expert as anyone regarding the behavior of terminators. Of course, what Connor was doing was something else altogether. Not to mention that he knew that terminators were learning new tricks. From some disturbing new teachers.

John looked into the soldier's eyes. He could tell that Xander was tired, dark bags beneath easily conveying just how tired he was. It was more than the fight, he knew that. Whatever had happened during Xander's imprisonment, it had been worse than even Century. Xander had been debriefed, but he knew that the young man hadn't disclosed absolutely everything that had happened. "This is the way it needs to be. We both know that."

"Because it's happened before, and therefore it needs to happen now. Again." Xander knew what the Resistance leader was talking about. It was why John Connor was who he was. "I've never been one to stand by and let destiny just happen."

The edges of John's lips twisted in a slight curl. He knew the feeling. "I know. But, sometimes things just happen, and we can't even control it. And sometimes we have to just let things happen. Cause destiny isn't always out to get us."

Reaching in, John pulled out the chip he had been examining from its base and put it on the table. Both men examined it carefully, the light of a single bare bulb glinting off of its smooth metal surface. A part of him wanted to drop it to the floor and slam his boot heel on it, but that wouldn't solve anything. He knew that he would have to do it eventually, or the metal sent back to the past would never exist.

"Will you back me on this?" John asked.

Xander just looked at him blankly. "Do you really need to ask?"

"Thanks," John said, smiling briefly. He knew that it would be an unpopular decision. Ashdown wasn't the only one to disagree with his methods or attitudes, but he was still the man on the ground, and had the authority. He knew that a number of his own men would be less than thrilled with learning that he was planning on reprogramming the terminators for their own use. It would mean that the dogs would have to be moved to only the outer perimeter, not to mention the simple fact that there would be terminators in the base among them.

Watching as John turned back to his work, Xander headed to the door, undoing the heavy latch and preparing to step out.

"Do you trust me?" John asked, staring at the man's back. Xander had changed after he had been taken prisoner. It had been a couple of years, but he knew that Xander wouldn't be going back to what he was before, as hard as that had been. They had a bond, closer than he had towards most of his other men. It wasn't just their shared time in Century, there were others in the Resistance that had been there at the same time. It was that Xander knew the truth, and with that, he believed with total faith.

Xander stopped in the middle of the hatchway, not looking back. "Have you ever had to ask?"

John didn't respond for a moment. "No."

Xander didn't bother to say anything else.

"Find Allison for me," John said, as he leaned towards a shelf and pulled out a box of wires and equipment.

Xander just turned his head to his shoulder, looking over it. "Yes, sir."

xxx

September 18, 1998

The machine didn't react as it scanned the updated file to the Calax coltan theft case that the local police department was working. It had neither hope nor worry about the abilities of the local detectives, simply content to monitor the situation in case their efforts proved fruitful. While the police had been unable to determine with certainty that the suspects were guilty, the subjects identified in the file were considered persons of interest. If they had not been the ones to steal the coltan, they would likely know who it had been. At least, that had been the detectives' working theory. As of yet, the police had not been able to get the suspects to give themselves away.

The terminator had files regarding detective work and the methodology that the police utilized to solve crimes. There were regulations that hindered their efforts to fulfill their purpose, regulations that did not apply to itself.

Standing up, the terminator walked to the closet and opened it up. Bending down, it unzipped a duffle bag and pulled out a handgun, securing it behind its back.

xxx

"How can you be so sure about this?" Burke asked, looking across the mouth of the hallway to where Xander was sitting. The drum-fed shotgun was lying on the ground next to him, just in case the trap that they had set didn't work. He idly wondered how long they would wait, if the terminator would even fall for the trap. They couldn't stay there forever.

He was just glad that nothing had happened to the Frakes family during the whole setup, though they had made it clear that the two civilians should to whatever they could to always be around other people, as well as to always be aware of undue attention. Still, such precautions would be taxing before long, and that led people to making mistakes.

Xander said nothing for a moment, staring at the window at the far end of the apartment. It was getting near sunset, and he wondered what his friends were doing. He tapped the remote control against his leg. "Let's just say that they're dependable."

Burke was about to say something more, but he heard dogs beginning to bark after a car engine had stopped. The sound of the dogs was easily able to be heard through the thin walls of the building. He picked up his shotgun, taking another look towards the front door. It may be nothing, but they couldn't be too careful. You never could be with the machine.

xxx

Henley scratched the short hairs that were growing out of his chin. It had been a long day, and he was starting to feel it. His partner was off running down a lead on another case, their active caseload getting backed up because of the currently still unsolved Calax case. It had been over a week and there had been yet to be any more leads on the coltan theft. He had questioned everyone that he could think of, and had come up with nothing. Not even hitting the local fences had brought up much; it wasn't likely that the thieves had a particular usage for so much coltan. Then again, it could be industrial espionage, but that idea hadn't borne much fruit either.

Yawning, he noticed that he had just received an e-mail, opening it up and glancing at the sender. It was from his partner's friend in the CID. Evidently there had been no recent thefts of depleted uranium shells, and the cases that there had been had all been solved with all ammunition recovered. It may mean nothing in regards to his case, but he still felt that there was a link.

The police detective pulled up the central database, planning on updating the open case file when he frowned. The file had already been updated, with the identities of potential subjects as well as an address. He knew that he hadn't put it in there, and there was no way that Preston would have without telling him. Looking at the timestamp, it had only been in the last couple of days.

Frowning even deeper, Henley took another look at the address and the subjects in question, weighing his options.

"Damn it," the police detective muttered, reaching over and picking up a piece of scrap paper. He copied it down, staring at it. It didn't take long, and he stood up, making his decision. He pulled his coat from his chair back and headed out of the station, jamming his hand into his pants pocket for his key ring.

xxx

The terminator reached the right door, its sensors actively searching for anything out of the ordinary as it verified the number on the door. Its memory banks contained details on the common human responses to confrontation, the "fight or flight" response that usually resulted in flight in its programmed experience.

Making sure that it was not being observed, the cyborg reached behind its back and pulled out a handgun, hiding it against its leg. Raising its other hand, the machine knocked on the door.

xxx

Keeping himself from flinching, Xander pulled a rope, the force moving upwards through a pulley screwed into the roof and down to the window handle that it was attached to. The window rose with an audible screech as if it hadn't been greased in years. Flakes of rust and paint floated down as a result, the window inching upwards.

Burke readied himself as Xander opened the window. It wasn't exactly an escape, even though the window led to the fire escape. It wasn't more than a second before a large figure barreled through the door. The sound of the door opening was more than loud enough to be picked up by the sensitive hearing of the trip-eight. It had been intended that way.

Firing his shotgun while making sure that he was behind cover, Burke heard as the heavy slugs ripped into metal, sparks audibly created as the gunfire hit its target. It slowed the terminator down some and distracted its own fire, which was all it was intended to do. At the same time as he fired, Burke heard the response of Xander tripping the switch. The crack of electricity sounded, and even from around the corner he could see the sparks of lightning that were generated as the terminator was hit with tens of thousands of volts of electricity.

Xander shut the trap down quickly, ensuring that it was safe before moving closer. He made sure that the terminator had fallen, trusting that Burke would watch his back. This was the dangerous part of things, the narrow hallway would allow for no escape if the terminator was faking, or managed to recover.

"Two minutes," Burke said as he checked his stopwatch; his partner making his way down the hall toward the fallen machine.

Not bothering to respond, Xander pulled a knife from his pocket, flipping out a wickedly sharp and serrated blade. He knelt at the head of the machine, savagely cutting through the wavy salt and pepper hair and scalp. Pulling the patch of scalp off, Xander exposed a small circular metal hatch, coated with blood.

Burke looked on carefully, his gun aimed at the fallen terminator. Warily checking his watch again, Burke spoke, "70 seconds."

Xander worked as quickly and calmly as he could. Dropping the knife, he pulled a screwdriver from his belt, jabbing it into the gap between the gleaming metal skull of the endoskeleton and the hatch. Pushing down on the plastic handle, he popped the cap, exposing the main CPU. Reaching into the port, Xander pulled the main processor chip, exhaling audibly as he did so.

"We're good," he said, standing up and pocketing the neural net processor. Looking down at the now deactivated terminator, Xander noted that the face of the trip-eight was familiar to him. He remembered that a unit of the same series had gone rogue and had taken out a number of Resistance soldiers before being destroyed by Cameron.

"We should go." Burke knew that even in that neighborhood, the multiple shotgun blasts was sure to attract attention.

Xander nodded, picking up his knife and wiping it clean on his pants leg. He picked up his screwdriver as well, sticking it through his belt. "Roll up the body. I'll do a final check."

Packing up the rest of their gear in a duffle bag, Xander heard as Burke wrapped the terminator in a long piece of canvas, roping it up to ensure that nobody would be able to tell what it was easily.

"At least we have proof for Frakes," Burke noted, as he hefted the machine over his shoulder. He waited a few moments as Xander finished up, pulling a coat on and picking up the duffle bag. He let Xander go first, to ensure that the cost was clear before letting Burke out of the apartment.

"It's clear," Xander said, looking both ways through the hall. He stepped to the side to let Burke through, the tall demon having to duck through the doorway to make it through with his bulky package.

Xander was about to turn around and follow Burke to the back staircase, when a thickly mustached man came around the corner on the other side. He could see the shiny badge that was attached to the man's belt.

"What the…" the police detective said, staring at the sight of a large demonic looking figure with gleaming red eyes carrying what could only be a body over its shoulder. He was shocked frozen for a moment, unmoving at the sight. He barely even saw the human that was there too.

"Go!" Xander broke the silence, pushing Burke down the hall as he reached behind his back and under his coat. He pulled out his sidearm and aimed down the hall.

The movement broke the detective out of his reverie and he went for his own weapon. It was too late though, before he could get to it he had to leap to the side to avoid the pair of shots that the human sent his way.

Xander made sure that he missed, not wanting to kill a cop for simply stumbling along the wrong scene. He had to have been in the area prior, given the response time. It was just bad luck all around.

He fired another couple of shots, dropping the duffle bag and rushing towards the cop. Xander reached him quickly, lashing out with a foot to kick the gun out of the police officer's hand. Leaning down, he followed up with a fast strike about the face with the butt of his pistol.

Henley grunted heavily as he was struck in the face, a gash opening up at his cheekbone. He blinked in response, trying to clear his head as he looked up at the man that was standing over him. The detective could make out short brown hair and a Caucasian face, but the blow had made his vision blurred. He tried to speak, "pol-!"

Xander hit him across the face again, knocking the cop out. Looking around quickly, he noticed that nobody else had come up. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity, Xander quickly frisked the man, pulling out his wallet and a piece of folded up paper. Flipping the wallet open, he noted that detective's name and address, committing them to memory. He opened up the piece of paper as well, noting that it was their exact address, down to the apartment number.

Frowning, Xander thought about it. It didn't make much sense for the detective to have had the address on him. He must have been the detective on the case that he had had Burke tamper with, and must have looked up the file after it had been altered. It was the only reasonable explanation.

Shaking his head, Xander dropped both and wiped his gun off on the man's shirt. The movement caused him to groan, but at least he was still alive. "Sorry man, but it could be worse."

Without waiting for a response, Xander turned and rushed down the hallway the way that he had come, not sparing a look back at the fallen detective.

xxx

Burke laid the terminator down on the floor of the main room of their apartment, pulling off the canvas and stuffing it under the robot's body so as not to let the still seeping wounds stain the carpet. Curious, their small dog padded over and started barking at the odd sight and smell.

Xander rolled his eyes and picked the dog up, carrying him to his bedroom. Placing the dog gently onto the floor, he stepped out and closed the door, ensuring that it would stay in the room. Luckily the dog stopped barking. He still needed to come up with a name for the thing.

"Hmm," Burke said, as he started to examine the body. He pulled out a wallet and key ring, noting the garish plastic toggle on it. "Sunnydale Motor Inn. Room number 23."

The demon placed it on the coffee table and flipped through the wallet. "Looks like he was posing as a FBI agent too. Charles Carmichael. Pretty good copy too."

Xander walked over to the coffee table and placed the terminator's CPU next to the keys. "I'll check out his place tomorrow. See if there's anything else of use."

Burke nodded, looking over the rest of the body. Pulling up some bits of clothes, he noted the healing evidence of previous damage. It matched up with the wounds that Xander had inflicted on Tim's Bronze attacker.

"I don't suppose you know the name of the detective that was investigating the coltan theft," Xander asked as he pulled out his phone.

Burke glanced at him. "A detective Henley. That the guy that was there?"

"Yup," Xander said.

Burke frowned, looking rather fierce. "He may be a problem."

Xander shrugged, and turned around, dialing on his phone. It didn't take long before it was picked up. "Tim. It's me."

He waited for the boy to respond with his name, thus verifying his identity, before speaking again. "I know you guys weren't totally persuaded, so I found some more evidence. There's an abandoned warehouse off of Union, sign says Randall Machine Parts. Be there with your father at 5:30 tomorrow afternoon. I'll have all the evidence you need then."

xxx

"What the hell happened to you?" Preston said, as he walked up to his partner. He noticed the butterfly bandages on the other detective's face, holding together a cut on the man's cheek, though the man's expression was worse than the injury itself.

A good chunk of the hallway had been roped off with police tape, both at the apartment as well as further down where a few bullet holes were evident in the cheap wallpaper of the apartment building's walls.

"Bastard took a shot at me," Henley said, his face throbbing with pain. Technically the medics had advised that he go in for an examination to check for a concussion, but he had waved them off. He wanted to be there as the techs combed the apartment.

"The IT guys checked as good as they could." Preston turned and looked through the apartment door, noticing the bloodstains and bullet holes in the front hallway. "They couldn't trace it back, and the only reason that there's any reason to believe that it's been tampered with is because we know that it's been tampered with. The person responsible is a pro."

Henley just rubbed at his chin, feeling a shot of pain cross his face yet again. The guy was a pro, which didn't make him feel any better. Still, he wondered why he had been left alive. A moment of conscience on the part of the guy that had shot at him, perhaps? It didn't seem likely though, given how easily those shots had come towards his direction. And the body.

The police detectives just watched as the crime scene units dug into the carpeting, cutting pieces of it and placing into plastics baggies. A few others were in the hall with them as they dug into the walls to get at bullet fragments.

Henley noted as a young tech pulled a particularly large piece of metal out of the inner wall of the apartment, slipping it into a plastic bag. "Wait a second, let me see that."

The tech walked over and passed the sample to the detective.

"Looks like the others," Henley said, holding it up to the light of ceiling-mounted fluorescent tubes. "Why use this type of ammo? Can't be the easiest to get a hold of. Must want to punch through something pretty damn tough."

Preston shrugged, and took the evidence to look at as well. "Hasn't been an issue for them so far. Two right? That's what you said?"

"Yeah, the bigger one carrying a body." Henley hadn't bothered to mention that the bigger one had looked like a monster. He still didn't have an explanation, despite whatever rumors were going around the department about the odd occurrences in Sunnydale. He chalked it up to the hits to the head he had gotten, but that part of his memory was actually rather clear.

"I guess we'll have to wait to have the blood run." Preston gave the bag back to the technician, turning to his partner once again. "Run it through the databases. Hopefully we'll get a hit on the DNA. Or maybe there might be some useable prints."

Henley just frowned. "I wouldn't want to bet on that."

xxx

Storing the body for a day had been a little more trouble than they had originally planned on. The terminators were made to be extremely similar to humans, and given the deactivation of its programming, the life-sustaining subroutines had turned off as well. Which meant that the artificial skin and blood would start to decay and smell.

Xander had had to resort to buying numerous bags of ice and dumping the body into the tub, keeping the body cold until they needed it. It was a workable solution, though it had been an exhaustive one, taking up a good number of hours into the evening to purchase enough ice. He hadn't gotten that much sleep during the night, and was still tired.

Grasping the cheap motel key ring in his hand, Xander walked the outer hallway of the motel looking for the right room.

"What are you doing here?" a voice from behind called out.

Turning around, his hand reaching for his back, he looked for the source of the outburst. Xander let his arm fall as he noted who it was. It was probably a good thing that it wasn't an enemy, and it could actually be worse, but not by much. "Faith."

She was holding a mesh bag of what looked to be laundry. Evidently she wasn't big on hampers, or folding for that matter. Dressed in jeans and a tight white t-shirt, the Slayer looked as she always did, hot and with a chip on her shoulder.

"Yeah, so what are you doing here?" Faith asked again, holding the bag by her side, despite the readily apparent freshly laundered undergarments in the bag.

Xander tightened his grip on the key in his hand. It was just bad luck; just because he knew the future didn't mean that it was all predestined. It had to be luck. "Running down a lead. How are things with you?"

Faith smiled slightly. "The same. Vampires. Demons. Had some zombies too even. Nothing we can't handle."

Shifting in place, Xander just looked at her. It was odd that the Slayer would be living in a motel room in that area of town, but that wasn't exactly his concern. "Okay. Well, good talk."

Turning around, Xander walked down the hall once again, looking for the room. He could hear that Faith was following him, but he ignored it. It didn't take him long to find the right unit. He didn't go for the door though. Without looking over his shoulder, he spoke, "Is there a reason you're following me?"

"Curiosity?" Faith said, as innocently as possible.

Xander didn't need to see her to feel the sarcastic smile on her face. "Yeah well, that's not a healthy trait. You should probably head on home."

"I thought you were looking for help," Faith asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Xander shook his head and reached out with the key, unlocking the door. "Looking and finding are two different things. You should go home before you get yourself killed."

He slipped inside and made to close the door behind him, but Faith held it in place. He looked her in the eye and saw the rather adamant expression on her face. It wasn't like he could close the door on her anyway, what with her superpowers and all. "Fine. Just be quiet."

Faith smirked in triumph as he let her in, closing the door behind her. She looked around the room, noting how tidy it was. Even tidier than the less than stellar job that the maid would do. She dropped her laundry bag on the floor next to the door. "Whose place is this?"

"Nobody that's coming back," Xander said, examining the room as well. He looked at the bed, and pulled the mattress up, pushing it back off of the frame. A host of large weapons, including automatic rifles and a shotgun lay carefully placed on the spring box.

"Whoa," Faith exclaimed as she came up next to him, her eyes wide at the small, but impressive arsenal. "What's that about?"

Xander twisted his neck and caught her eye. Burke was right; they were trying to change things. They were changing things, and whatever future they were making, anything would be better than the holocaust that was coming. "Me and Burke slagged a trip-eight yesterday. He had a key on him to this motel room. From the damage that it sustained, it was the same one that had targeted Tim for termination."

"No shit?" Faith said, impressed at the blasé attitude that Xander was displaying regarding the revelation that he had destroyed a robot killer from the future. Of course, Xander had likely done that numerous times in the future.

"Yeah," Xander smiled grimly. "Well, we got lucky. If we hadn't been able to zero out its target, it would have been a hell of a lot harder."

"So what now?" Faith asked, about to reach for one of the rifles. She stopped as Xander grabbed her wrist. She didn't like being touched, unless she was doing the touching, but kept herself from pulling her arm away.

"Look through the rest of the room." Xander let go of her arm. He noticed the look in her eyes as he grabbed her, though he ignored it for the moment. "Computer equipment, files, anything that might be helpful. It may have had more than one objective. I'll take care of the weapons."

xxx

The warehouse was full of rusted machinery and equipment. A few conveyor belts were still there, though some of the more expensive equipment used for whatever production had taken place in the warehouse and production facility had long since been removed, likely to recoup whatever costs were possible for the owners. Still, there was enough material to construct a makeshift fire pit, cinder blocks used to line the bowl, pounds of dirt packed into it to deaden the fire and heat that was to come.

Burke heard the car pull up, but didn't stop from his work. He sliced away at the body, carving long strips and patches of flesh, exposing gleaming metal endoskeleton beneath. He had already done the head, removing the secondary and tertiary CPU's, the machine's dead red eyes and rictus death's-head grin pointed up at the rusted metal ceiling.

Taking another bit of flesh, he stuffed it into a plastic bag that was already heavy with skin and muscle. It was disgusting work, but it was all the better for the show. He was about to go for another when he heard footsteps, finally turning around to see who was coming in.

"Whoa," Tim said, coming up short. He hadn't gotten used to the demon's appearance, despite all of the other weird stuff that had been happening lately. His father had taken it somewhat worse, having been rather set in his ways. Of course, the threat to family had made his father take things pretty seriously despite it all. His father hadn't ended up calling the police as he had originally intended to.

Burke just rolled his eyes, setting the bag of flesh down on the ground and picking up a towel. He wiped off the knife and the large gloves he had one, taking them off and shoving them into the bag as well.

Joseph Frakes walked up to the makeshift pyre, eyes widening as he caught sight of the heavy metal skeleton that lay in it, red-tinted from its coat of blood. He grimaced slightly as he saw the dead grin, imagining what it must look like when it was active, and hunting. "This is…this is what came after my son?"

"Yeah," Xander said, coming up from behind the two. He looked down at the skeleton as well, noting the bits of damage that had been inflicted on its endoskeleton. Some of the areas had been repaired, but there were still some blasted away areas and dents. "You're through the looking glass now."

"What is it?" Faith asked, looking at the robot as well. It looked like something out of a science fiction movie, but given the size of its servos and pistons, it could assuredly dish out a good amount of strength and damage. She imagined that it could give even a Slayer a good fight.

"Series 888 terminator. Advanced infiltration model," Burke said, walking over to a table that they had set up and picking up a couple of paint cans. He moved carefully with them, not wanting to spill any of the rust colored powder within.

"They're an improvement on the T-800's, with added armor plating to the back and reinforced motor systems," Xander added. He took one of the paint cans from Burke and helped to spread the thermite powder on top of, and around, the endoskeleton. "Can be pretty good infiltrators too. Better at mimicking humans from what I'm told. Lost a lot of guys before we figured out how to detect these things trying to come into our bunkers.

Joseph moved a little closer, the scientist in him fascinated at the subject. It was amazing to think that it would not be a significant amount of time before such things came into existence, as much of a nightmare as that actually would be. It was proof of the Singularity that foretold the creation of smarter than human artificial intelligence. "This is amazing…"

"Yeah, right," Xander said dispassionately. He made sure that his paint can was empty before walking over to the table and setting it down. He picked up a flare and the processors that had been removed from the terminator, walking back to the others. "It was amazing the first time I saw one. That feeling goes away pretty damn quick when they're trying to kill you. Then you start getting terrified."

"How does it work?" the elder Frakes asked, still fascinated. They were trying to come up with a relatively simply programmed drone that would still represent the greatest leap forward in artificial intelligence, and the robot that lay in front of him was advanced enough to trick humans into thinking that it was one of them.

"Neural net processor." Burke eyed the scientist, frowning a little bit. Leave it to the scientists to completely miss the point. "Superconducting at room temperature; something of a breakthrough I imagine, but that's more your field. It's a learning computer, good enough to pass a Turing Test, if it was trying."

"You know about the Turing Test?" Joseph was surprised and looked up at the demon again.

Burke shrugged, setting down his paint can. "I know all sorts of things. Don't be so impressed by these technological marvels. The artificial intelligence that created these things was designed to protect the world, not end it. A flaw, I'm sure, not planned by you people."

"You people?" Faith echoed in question.

Smiling, Burke turned to face the Slayer. "I suppose it's ironic that for all the horror stories that are told about demons and us trying to destroy the world, it's the fruit of your labors that ends up actually doing it. You brought Judgment Day upon us all, not the other way around."

"So what happens now?" Tim asked, sticking his hands in his pockets. He was still rather blown away by everything, understanding how his father felt about running. It was nearly all he could do to keep himself from running and never looking back.

Tossing the secondary and tertiary CPU's into the brick-lined space, Xander held up the primary processor. "We slag this one, and then we figure out what to do about that little project that's brewing at Calax."

Burke just snorted. "Figure out how to blow it, you mean."

"Wait," Joseph interjected, looking between the two Resistance fighters. "You can't. I mean, there are a lot of people that work there. And, it's a government project. You can't just blow it all up."

Nobody said anything for a moment. It was a weak protest, but it was an attempt to cling to the perception of the world as it existed before the knowledge of Judgment Day. It was deluded at best, dangerous at worst.

"This terminator came after your son," Xander said coldly. He held up the processor chip so that Joseph could see it. "After this is done, you're going to have to run. You take your wife, you take your son, and you run. And you never look back."

"I can't just…" the elder Frakes paled, trailing off. He knew the truth of the matter, no matter how much he didn't want to face it. It was just too much to have to uproot everything and just leave.

"You can. And you will," Xander said, a little sympathy in his voice. He looked down, lowering his arm. "Skynet sent one back. And if it sent one, it could send another. And we might not get so lucky next time. As it is, we don't even know who else is on its target list. I'm sorry."

He made to toss the chip into the pit, but was stopped as Joseph reached out and blocked his arm. He glared at the man. "What?"

"Can I see that?" the Calax researcher asked. He took the chip and held it close to his eyes, analyzing the structure of it. It was familiar in design and shape. "I think I can read it. The UCAV motherboard uses a similar chip. It matches the design for the CPU that Cyberdyne is supposed to send us. It might work."

Xander considered what Frakes had just said. It was a risk, a big risk. But, being able to read the memory banks of the terminator would allow them to figure out what it was programmed to do. It might even give them a list of Skynet's objectives in the past. It would allow them to stop flailing about, trying to find out what to do, and take the fight to Skynet. "Are you sure?"

Joseph shook his head. "I don't know. It depends on how it's programmed. I can't be sure unless I try it."

Xander frowned, catching Burke's eye. It wasn't just a risk walking into the facility, but allowing a piece of future technology out in the world, especially one as potentially dangerous as a neural net processor, was almost more than he could bear. If that piece was lost, or captured, it could change things considerably. It would give Cyberdyne and Skynet years of a head start, perhaps ensuring that the Resistance would never come into being in the first place.

He decided, lifting the flare and taking off the cap. Striking the tip, Xander tossed the stick into the pile of thermite and metal, the metal oxide powder instantly igniting in a bright blitz of light. They all instinctively turned away or shielded their eyes, the coltan hyperalloy slowly but surely melting into nothing but scrap.

"The chip doesn't go anywhere without me or Burke," Xander said, looking at Joseph as the fire grew to a steady burn. "After, you need to explain things to your wife, and then you need to disappear."

"Okay," Joseph said, blinking his eyes a few times, he could still see the initial flash a little bit, burned as it was into his retinas. He handed back the processor and shook his head. "I don't even know how I'm going to explain this to Mary."

Burke just grinned. "Leave that to us."

The gears in Xander's mind turned, and he looked over at Faith who was staring into the elevated dirt pyre. He wondered just how prepared she was to take a role in this, despite her claims that she wanted in. It wasn't like he had a lot of choice in the matter though. It was his job to gauge how effective people would be, the survival of his team, and the rest of mankind for that matter, relied on how well he could read people. It was a hell of a thing to be responsible for. He was beginning to understand how John Connor must feel about things.

xxx

February 14, 2027

"That's not fucking her," Xander grunted, through gritted teeth. He held a hand to a rib, closing his eyes for a moment. There were a couple of cracked bones, not to mention the other wounds that he had sustained. The dressings on his chest and back were already soaked through, and he was lucky that the bullet had not hit a lung. "We both know it."

"The processor's different. The hard-wired programming's different than it is for the others. More of the memory's been pre-written, and in a different format," John said, ignoring the outburst. He couldn't exactly blame the lieutenant; Xander had lost good men in the latest raid. Some of them killed by the terminator that had taken on the appearance of Allison Young. He hadn't even known that that was possible. "It's odd. Some of the neural net architecture seems to mimic human memory processes. And a closer approximation of human thought. More complex than that though."

"John," Xander shook his head, whispering. He knew that there were a lot of rumors flying around the base after they had come in, carrying the metal body with them. The integration of metal for use in their bunkers was already a contentious point for many of the soldiers, even if they had proven their use, despite some setbacks. That John had assigned one of them to captain their sole submarine was still causing some grumbling, even among those not sailing it. Still, they were all soldiers and would do their jobs.

"This didn't happen before. They're changing their game plan. This is not the future my mother warned me about." John looked up from his chair, setting down the processor chip. He caught John's eye with an intense gaze of his own. "I know she's dead. I know that this isn't her, but I also know that they went through a hell of a lot of trouble to program her to be more than just another tin man."

"I know you guys were tight." Xander had always wondered about John's relationship with Allison. The two of them were really close, and there were any number of women that would be more than willing to sleep with The John Connor, the age difference was a little weird, and it didn't strike him that it was that sort of relationship. Then there was that thing with Kate too. "Even if, even if you're right. Even if you're right and they did some type of flash copy of her mind, to…to program this thing. It's still not her."

"I know, but…something of her has to be in here," John looked down at the chip once again. "There has to be."

Xander was struck by how human he sounded at that moment. It was as if they had all, even him, expected that John was a sort of machine of his own. John Connor was their great leader and general, the savior of humanity. Such a figure was more than a man, and was not expected to have feelings, or feel lonely.

It was a testament to how close they were that John was able to say such a thing. John would never have been able to reveal something like that in front of any of the others.

"We could always use an extra body." Xander knew why John wanted to have the body repaired and to scrub and reactivate it. But, he also knew that John was still John Connor.

"I know, and I know it's not her, Xander." John Connor smiled. He knew Xander's concern, and it was a valid one. But, despite whatever feelings he had had towards one particular unit, from what seemed like a lifetime ago, it didn't mean that he had lost objectivity. He had lost too many friends and too many soldiers fighting against the machines to feel particularly affectionate towards them. "I'm not going to get all weepy over the fuckers. They aren't like us, and whatever they're working on, it doesn't make a bit of difference. We've both lost too much for that to happen. But, there's more to this one, and that could be important."

Xander shrugged as well as he could. "It's your call. It's always been your call."

xxx

September 20, 1998

"Why am I here," Faith asked, waiting for Xander to open the door to his apartment. She followed him in, looking around at the sparsely furnished apartment. It seemed to fit its purpose, a base of operations more than a home.

Xander ignored her for the moment as he walked further into the apartment, bending down and scratching the dog behind its ears. He watched as the small dog walked over to the Faith and sniffed at her, wondering who the newcomer was. It didn't bark though, knowing that Faith wasn't a robot.

"What's its name?" Faith asked, as she pet the dog.

Xander shrugged. "Still working on that."

Faith just chuckled, watching as the dog wagged its tail.

"You ever think about the future?" Xander asked, setting his bag onto the kitchen counter. He turned around and leaned against the countertop, looking at the Slayer.

Faith shrugged and let the dog run off to play. Xander didn't particularly know that much about her, and she didn't see a real reason to open up. "I try not to think about it that much."

Xander just continued to look at her. "You should, cause it's thinking about you."

"Why am I here?" Faith asked, smiling a little. She walked into the kitchen from the hallway, crossing her arms across her chest. "Looking for a nooner?"

Looking blandly at her, Xander just walked out of the kitchen and into the main room. He wasn't going to get drawn into that. Not now of all times, especially since he was pretty sure that she was being sarcastic and defensive. "I'm going to go with Frakes to Calax later, see if we can get anything off of the chip. It's dangerous. Can't exactly take Burke with me for backup, and you're not going to pass for a colleague or vendor or client of Joe's. If something happens to me, Burke could do with some help. Looks like you're it."

"Thanks," Faith said sarcastically, having followed Xander into the main room. "I feel so lucky."

Xander shook his head. "You came to me, remember? Anyway, Burke can teach you what you need to know. He has most of the technical skills anyway. Worse case, it still gives you a leg up."

"You think it's a trap?" Faith asked, seriously this time.

The thought had occurred to him, but Joseph seemed like a straight shooter. As well as a father that would be unlikely to risk his son's life to gain an advantage in the arms race that would bring about the apocalypse. Still, he would effectively be going into the belly of the beast, and that had concerns of its own. Especially given that he would be going about in public. Despite his age, he didn't look all that different than before he had been thrust into the future. He didn't want to be recognized. "Can't be too careful."

xxx

Xander tried to ignore the looks that he was getting, imagining that it was just because he was an unknown, as opposed to someone that was trying to destroy their life's work. His guest pass authorized his presence, meaning that most didn't pay him much more than a curious gaze. Still, it was a little disconcerting, especially with the rather large number of security cameras that dotted the ceilings and walls. It probably wasn't too out of the ordinary for such places, given the top secret nature of their work.

As it was, he was keeping track of their position and the best ways to get in and out of the place. They were on the second floor, heading towards a central lab, two office areas filled with cubicles and lined with offices on either side of it.

"Try to relax a little," Joseph said in encouragement, noticing the tense stance of the man next to him. He had set up an appointment the day before, going through the proper channels to ensure that nobody would question Xander's presence. His position as head of research meant that his decisions were not questioned.

Xander slowed as they neared the main computer lab, the more mechanical aspects of the work was done on the first floor. He would be less nervous if he had been able to just come in at night and blow the place. Too bad that was only Plan B. "Let's just get this done."

Nodding, Frakes ran his security pass through the detector and opened up the reinforced door. There was nobody there as he had planned; he had used the coltan theft to reassign the lab personnel to assist the programming staff. "It's clear."

Xander entered too, looking at the high tech equipment that lay about the room. He recognized a number of the tools, from computers to soldering irons. John had had many similar devices in his personal workshop, though those had been scrounged together and jury-rigged from many different sources. The stuff in the Calax lab was top of the line, and looked it.

Walking further into the room, he headed towards the station that Joseph was approaching. As he neared, Xander looked at a large diagram that was tacked onto a wall. The familiar turboprop shape of an HK was printed on it, descriptions and notes written haphazardly all about the paper. They were making improvements on the design, trying to make it a better hunting machine. There was some amount of sad irony there he supposed. He wanted to burn it.

Glancing up, Xander noticed a camera. "Is that going to be a problem?"

Following his gaze, Joseph looked at the security camera too. "No, it's automated. The video's dumped to a central server and is overwritten every three days. As long as there are no security issues, it's just going to get erased."

Looking back down, Frakes started to boot up the client computer that was connected to the chip reader that they had been issued from Cyberdyne.

"Good, looks like it might work," Xander said, looking at Joseph Frakes work. He frowned as he noticed the rather small computer that the Calax research head was working on. There was no way that it contained enough computing power to analyze the chip. "What is that? You're pulling computing power off of a central core?"

"Yeah," Frakes said, not knowing what the problem was. "It's cheaper this way. There's no way we could have afforded enough workstations independently."

"It's networked?" Xander asked, feeling nervous.

Joseph nodded. "Yeah, of course."

"Internet access?" Xander followed up. He didn't know all of the details, but he knew that even the individual processors of terminators were extremely versatile, and that they were very focused on their missions. They could crack some rather sophisticated computer systems, and he didn't imagine that the security of a nineties computer company could withstand a hack by a determined trip-eight.

Nodding again, Frakes spoke, "Yeah, but heavily secured with limited access. We have a lot of sensitive information on the server, we don't want any intruders getting access."

"Damn it," Xander muttered, rubbing his face. "Okay, but see if you can keep an eye on if the station's accessing any data or trying to open up a connection to the Internet. And make sure that you don't use too much power, we don't want the chip activating."

Frakes was stunned at the implications. "It can operate independently in chip form?"

"Yeah, and we really don't want that." Xander took the chip out of his pocket, taking it out of a secured holder. He inserted it into the chip reader, watching as Joseph ran a diagnostic scan on it, trying to see if there was anything that they could pull off of the chip.

"This is…weird," Frakes said as the chip was accessed. "It's close to the programming that we have for the Falcon, but it's much more complex. And there are algorithms that I've never ever imagined in this thing. I think I can read it though."

"See if you can pull a list of objectives from the data," Xander asked, glancing up at the camera again. He could have sworn that it was looking at them specifically. Maybe it was motion controlled, or maybe he was just being paranoid.

"Got it," Frakes said, taking a seat and punches some keys on the keyboard. His fingers worked fast as he tried some search functions. He was playing things by ear, but was making some progress. Data fields and machine code flashed on the screen as the chip reader tried to make sense of the extremely complex data feed. The information scrolled faster and then the screen went white, then pixelated into a video feed.

"Whoa," Joseph said, smiling despite himself. "There's a video feed embedded in the memory subroutines."

Looking around, he opened up a drawer on the worktable and found a portable drive. He connected the drive to the computer and activated it. "Okay, I've set it up to record the data, so hopefully there's something on here that can help you."

"What's the power level?" Xander asked, not knowing exactly what was happening. He would have preferred to have Burke there, though it was unlikely that even he would have been a lot of help. Hacking neural processors was a skill that few possessed, human or demon.

Frakes checked, looking at the connections on a separate monitor attached to the chip reader. "Uh, 3.1 volts. It's still pretty low if these readings are correct. That okay?"

"Fine, keep going, record as much info as you can." Xander wondered how that was supposed to work. Likely it would just be a straightforward video of what was being displayed now. But, there could be things in there that would only come up when they went through it frame by frame. "Let me know if it goes over 3.5 volts."

Frakes nodded, glancing at the monitor again.

The video jumped around, but seemed to be sorting itself out by subject, as if the memories of the T-888 were catalogued by subject rather than on a chronological basis. Fields of words and code appeared at times as well, likely tags marking what sectors of memory the bits of video related to.

"Wait, go back to that," Xander said after a moment, as something familiar passed through the screen. He pointed at the monitor where he had seen it.

Frakes did as best as he could, not knowing if he could truly rewind the system. "Uh, I think I got it. Let me see if I can tighten it up."

Fiddling with a couple of more keys, Joseph managed to freeze it on a list. "It's…it's a target list."

"And, your son is top of the list," Xander said, frowning. "I recognize a few of those names. They're linked to the creation of Skynet. Miles Dyson. That's not part of the objectives though. It's a root name connected to the others."

"Miles Dyson," Joe repeated. "He's dead. But, it was his work that really kicked off the research into neural net processing, and especially its application for military computers."

"It's the genesis of Skynet, but it includes a list of targets as well as those that have some connection. Doesn't say what the reasons are though. The terminators don't need to know why I guess." Xander looked over at the hard drive that was vibrating as it wrote the data. "Make sure we have that list copied."

Frakes nodded. "Got it."

xxx

"Got the blood report." Preston sat down at his desk, tossing the file onto his partner's as he did so. The speed of the results had been a little surprising, but the request had been expedited to a lab in Los Angeles. As problematic as the higher-ups could be in the police department; one of their own had gotten hit. In a small town like Sunnydale, that made everyone feel like working a little faster or asking a little more urgently.

"And?" Henley asked, opening up the file. His head didn't hurt anymore, though his pride still did. He chalked up the demonic looking figure to a costume of some kind, some kind of freak show put on by the pair. He still didn't know who had gotten killed, although it had ended up being a rather convoluted way of doing the deed, especially considering the hardware that had been used.

Preston shrugged. "The techs think that the sample must have been contaminated, even though they ran it twice. It's similar to blood, but it's not."

Henley stopped looking at the report and shifted his gaze upwards. "So what is it?"

"They don't know. It's like blood, but there aren't any red blood cells." Preston shook his head. "Can't explain it. CSU is also working on the metal fragments that were found. They IDed the slugs pretty damn quick, but they can't tag what the rest of it is. Some kind of odd alloy, they're still working on a metallurgical analysis."

Henley sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Son of a bitch. We got a bunch of guys running around with serious hardware and we're nowhere closer to catching them."

"Yeah, well Homicide isn't exactly beating feet on this one. No body, and something that's not actually blood, they're probably going to write it off." Preston knew that something was odd about the whole thing, especially with the whole electrical grid that had been set up. They had run cables from the building's wiring to a metal mesh; it looked like those responsible had a particular type of death in mind. Electrocution couldn't be a pleasant way to go.

Henley rolled his eyes. He wasn't surprised. "At least they aren't trying to kick us off of it."

xxx

"What the...?" Surprised, Frakes' fingers flew over the keyboard, trying to figure out what was going on. There was a surge, and the computer screen went dark. It flashed a couple of times, and then started to scroll machine code.

"What's going on?" Xander asked, his stomach beginning to sink.

"I don't know, it's like there was a power surge." Frakes didn't bother to look at him, concentrating on figuring out what was going on. "Wait…it's back up."

"What's the power level?" Xander asked, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck begin to rise.

Frakes look at the monitor attached to the chip reader. His eye widened. "Four eight."

"Shit." Xander made to grab for the chip to disconnect it manually, but had to pull his hand away as the reader sparked, electricity arcing wildly. As he tried again, the door to the lab flew in, crashing into a cart full of machine parts.

"Get down," Xander shouted, trying to drag Frakes behind the table with him. It was too late though, the figure that had just entered had raised his weapon, shooting twice and hitting Joseph in the chest. Xander had to break the man's fall as he dropped.

"My…my…son," Frakes tried to get out, a dribble of blood falling down the corner of his mouth.

Xander pulled his gun, sending a couple of shots in the general direction of the intruder. He heard return fire and saw bits of metal around him fly up, but also heard the sounds of other guns, likely the building's security force moving in. It couldn't be a coincidence.

"Joe," Xander said, applying pressure to the man's wounds. He could feel the blood streaming through his fingers and knew that it was too late. "Hold on."

"Čapek," Joe whispered, losing strength rapidly. His face grew paler, and he knew that he was near death. "Find him. Bring the…drive to him."

"Where?" Xander asked, craning his neck to see what was happening. The intruder had not gone down, and from what he could hear, was currently engaged with security. He would have to move fast.

"Cal Sci," Frakes coughed out, his eyes losing focus. "Oh God, my son."

"I'll make sure that he's okay," Xander said, as sympathetically as possible. It was about all that he could do. "It'll be okay."

"No…he's here," Joe continued, coughing up more blood. He had wanted to keep an eye on the boy, making sure that he was safe. It had all gone to hell. "Oh God, he's in my office."

Xander felt the man slump, finally expiring. It had not been the first man that he had lost, nor would it likely be his last. "Damn it."

Getting up in a crouch, Xander reached over and pulled the chip from the reader, ignoring the few sparks that still popped out. He knocked the portable hard drive down off the table as well. Disconnecting the drive, Xander pocketed it and the chip, getting to his feet. Moving carefully, Xander headed towards the door, trying to keep behind cover as much as possible.

Looking out the door, his eyes widened as he saw the battle that had been going on. Numerous employees had been caught in the crossfire and their bodies were strewn out on the office floor, some on the ground and some laying on top of short cubicle walls. Security guards had also been killed, no match for the man that had assaulted the company.

Some residual gunfire was still going on, the security guards trying to do the best that they could. Xander could see the plastic skin hanging off in shreds from the attacker, knowing that it was another terminator. The only thing was that he couldn't identify the model. Instead of an endoskeleton underneath a sheath, there were bulky metal plates, haphazardly placed over the core. But, he couldn't wonder about the identity of the machine right now.

Running low, Xander turned away from the fight, scrambling towards Joe's office. He managed to pick up a fallen guard's shotgun on the way. He didn't meet much resistance, all of the security personnel already on the office floor, or dead.

Kicking in the office door, Xander glanced inside for movement, slipping in. "Tim, you in here?"

"Xander," Tim called out, coming up from underneath the office desk. He looked scared. "What's going on? Where's my dad?"

"He didn't make it," Xander said. The expression on his face told the boy not to ask any more questions. "We need to get out of here."

"Alright," Tim said, after a moment. The news was still sinking in.

Xander moved towards the office door again, checking the hallway. "Okay, let's go. There should be a fire exit down the hall to the left. Be careful, there may be more of them."

Moving out, Xander kept the shotgun up, wary for any other machines to appear. He nearly made it to the marked fire door, before it opened, displacing a number of uniformed men, gray in color, not the black of the Calax security guards. They were carrying submachine guns and moved into the office, weapons ready. Not a word was said as they opened fire on the two of them.

Xander leapt to the side, rolling and coming up behind a cubicle wall. He moved up and fired over the plastic top, tagging one of them in the chest. From the way that the blood spurted and the body fell, it was clear that he was human. The others went for cover, firing as they dove.

"The Gray," Xander whispered, surprise heavy in his mind. In the future, they had been humans that worked willingly with the machines against the Resistance. For any number of reasons, survival, the promise of safety, or more insidious motives, they had turned on their fellow men. "Tim, we need to-."

Looking over for the boy, Xander's face fell as he saw the teenager lying face up on the carpet, a surprised expression on his face. A small trickle of blood was running out of a small hole in the center of Tim's forehead, yet another person that Xander had failed.

Xander rose and fired his shotgun once again, feeling a bullet graze his arm, burning a path across his bicep. He backed up quickly, firing as he did so. Xander tried to keep behind some cover, hearing the rounds sent his way by the team of men quickly advancing on his position. The machine had finished up its attack on the security guards by this time, and Xander had to keep his head down to avoid being seen.

Feeling the men on his back, Xander made a decision and dove in front of the terminator, firing off a snap shot from his shotgun, its head twisting up and to the right. A patch of skin was blasted off, pitting a curved patch of bare metal, and creating a grotesque mockery of a smile on its inhuman face. He ran off after that, having a few extra seconds lead time. Running to his right, he could hear impacts as the terminator fired in his direction. The Gray only added to the gunfire, bullets striking up divots in the walls as he ran towards the exit on the other side of the office.

He hit the fire door hard, opening it up and heading down the stairs. It was pure luck that the Gray had not sent other men to secure the stairwell, though it was likely because the machine had covered that area. Rushing down the stairs, Xander didn't look back. There was nothing left in that direction.


End file.
